A Song to Drown Rivers

August 5, 2024
Liang’s propulsive adult debut (after the YA novel I Hope This Doesn’t Find You) offers a straightforward retelling of the life of one of ancient China’s fabled Four Beauties. Xishi’s good looks are so arresting that, when she was born, “all the wild geese flew down from the sky, and the fish sank beneath the waves, having forgotten how to swim... beauty is not so different from destruction.” As she grows older, she wears a half veil in public to stop people from gawking. Word of her beauty spreads to Fanli, the Yue king’s top minister, who recruits her for a covert operation to bring down the enemy State of Wu by acting as a tribute concubine to the king. She’s reluctantly trained in court etiquette by Fanli—and both of them are surprised by a growing attraction. As the operation moves closer and closer to success, Xishi realizes the rumors about the evil king of Wu may not all be true and comes to question her role. The historical details occasionally feel fudged—including Xishi’s husband allowing her to remain a virgin—but Xishi’s narration brings personalized stakes to imperial court drama and shows the double-edged sword of beauty. Fans of plot-driven historical fantasy should take note. Agent: Kathleen Rushall, Andrea Brown Literary.

August 13, 2024
A Song to Drown Rivers is a bold departure from Ann Liang’s critically acclaimed YA rom-com novels (This Time It’s Real, I Hope This Doesn’t Find You, If You Could See the Sun). However, it is a departure that has proven well worth making. Liang’s first adult novel is a historical retelling of the apocryphal myth of Xishi, a beautiful woman from the Yue Kingdom. Using a Trojan horse strategy, she sets off to bring the oppressive King Fuchai of Wu to his knees. A Song to Drown Rivers has all the makings of a great fantasy novel: a nation on the precipice of war led by a dictatorial monarch, a strong female lead with a mission, and a chiseled and stoic male lead in the military advisor Fanli. Liang’s writing doesn’t dawdle on flowery depictions of characters or scenery; instead, it sets the novel against a backdrop that transcends time and place and embraces its fantasy genre sensibilities. The story builds slowly to a climax, with Liang’s writing reaching a brilliantly tense crescendo as a series of emotional events unfold. A Song to Drown Rivers is a timeless cautionary tale of tragic star-crossed lovers for readers who enjoyed Shelly Parker-Chan’s She Who Became the Sun. As a first-time reader of Liang’s work, I finished the novel an emotional wreck and hungry for more from this author.