{"id":22727,"date":"2014-02-14T10:21:45","date_gmt":"2014-02-14T15:21:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bookdragon.si.edu\/?p=22727"},"modified":"2015-06-21T09:59:40","modified_gmt":"2015-06-21T13:59:40","slug":"the-undertaking-of-lily-chen-by-danica-novgorodoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-undertaking-of-lily-chen-by-danica-novgorodoff\/","title":{"rendered":"The Undertaking of Lily Chen by Danica Novgorodoff"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"the<\/a>Before Danica Novgorodoff\u2019<\/a>s story even begins, her dedication page offers crucial tidbits: in paying homage to her grandparents, she reveals both her Chinese heritage and inspiration [“To my grandparents, Eugene and Ellen Chen Novgorodoff”]; in quoting a July 2007 article from The Economist<\/em><\/a> (we’re talking pretty much now!), she prepares readers with an introduction to “a burgeoning market for female corpses, the result of the reappearance of a strange custom called ‘ghost marriages,'” in which parents of unmarried dead sons hold posthumous ‘weddings’ to prevent their progeny entering the next world alone. [Might I suggest Yangsze Choo’s The Ghost Bride<\/em><\/a> as a most ingenious companion text?]\n

Wei Li, the favored older son of the Li family, is dead. Accident though it was, his younger brother Deshi remains responsible. Following a tradition that possibly began in 208 AD when a powerful warlord demanded “the body of a woman” to “lie with [his dead young son] in the dark eternal bedroom,” the Li brothers’ parents give Deshi a bag of cash, a beast of burden, and demand he return in exactly a week with a wife for Wei.<\/p>\n

Following advice from a dwarfish matchmaker who sends him to skeezy Mr. Song, Deshi searches for a suitable spouse, even if that means digging six feet under. When a love match doesn’t turn up, Deshi goes in search of a fresher candidate. He meets Lily, the obstinate, feisty daughter of a remote villager mired in financial woes; Lily impulsively steals Deshi’s ride forcing him to give chase. Their unexpected journey together begins \u2013 Deshi trying to get to that wedding on time with the perfect guest, Lily intending to escape her provincial life for a new beginning in the big city. Sunday’s deadline (couldn’t resist) looms … and somehow Deshi must fulfill his filial duties, even if that means, uh … dying for love.<\/p>\n

Corpses and ghosts aside \u2013 not to mention that not-so-subtle skull on the book’s cover \u2013 Undertaking<\/em> is quite the heartstrings-pulling story for this Valentine’s Day. No, really! Novgorodoff’s original narrative and her can’t-turn-away-from-the-action-packed-art definitely trump chocolate and flowers any day.<\/p>\n

Readers<\/strong>: Young Adult, Adult<\/p>\n

Published<\/strong>: 2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before Danica Novgorodoff\u2019s story even begins, her dedication page offers crucial tidbits: in paying homage to her grandparents, she reveals both her Chinese heritage and inspiration [“To my grandparents, Eugene and Ellen Chen Novgorodoff”]; in quoting a July 2007 article from The Economist (we’re talking pretty…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,67,21,6,73,197,31],"tags":[6608,1080,75,10,242,13,39,170,1081],"class_list":["post-22727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-chinese","category-chinese-american","category-fiction","category-graphic-novel-manga-manwha","category-hapa","category-young-adult-readers","tag-bookdragon","tag-danica-novgorodoff","tag-death","tag-family","tag-horror-ghost-story","tag-love","tag-parent-child-relationship","tag-sibling-rivalry","tag-undertaking-of-lily-chen"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Undertaking of Lily Chen by Danica Novgorodoff - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-undertaking-of-lily-chen-by-danica-novgorodoff\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Undertaking of Lily Chen by Danica Novgorodoff - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Before Danica Novgorodoff\u2019s story even begins, her dedication page offers crucial tidbits: in paying homage to her grandparents, she reveals both her Chinese heritage and inspiration [“To my grandparents, Eugene and Ellen Chen Novgorodoff”]; 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