This book had been on my radar for a while. When I spotted its audiobook on my Scribd app, I knew it was time to listen to it. The clinching factor was its narration by Natalie Naudus. I loved her narration of Sue Lynn Tan’s books. She read them with such feeling and passion that she converted me to this new way of imbibing a book. I was not disappointed. Her narration was as perfect as ever.
The story opens in the year 1345 in Zhongli, a drought struck village in Southern China. A little girl, barely ten years old, has to fight for every morsel of food. Food that is given to her father and brother first while she gets the dregs and leftovers. When bandits attack, she is thrown to them in an effort to appease them. Luckily, they are not interested in this scrawny, ugly thing. A fortune teller foresees greatness in her older brother, Zhu Chongba. When the fortune teller looks at the girl, he foresees ‘nothing’. The girl is devastated. Contrary to the fortune teller’s readings, the girl finds that she has something, a will to survive, tenacity and also a ruthlessness to take extreme steps to ensure her survival.
She finds herself assuming her brother’s identity in a desperate attempt to steal his fate. My gentle readers who follow Asian dramas about pretty girls assuming a male identity and finding themselves a handsome prince will be disappointed here. Our leading girl, heretofore known as Zhu Chongba, suffers untold misery, hunger and beatings. She takes refuge in a monastery as a novice where any revelation of her gender will bring nothing but death. In face of such dire circumstances, Zhu hones her wit and finds ways to escape detection.
In course of her adventures, she meets the Eunuch General Ouyang who serves Prince Esen. At first sight, Zhu is captivated by the beautiful general. Later, she finds herself in opposite camps and has deadly face offs against Ouyang again and again. Zhu Chongba travels on, bent upon fulfilling the prophecy of greatness that was granted to her name, mowing down all those who stand in her way. In her endeavours, Zhu is aided by the beautiful Ma Yingzi who accepts Zhu for what she is, accepting even her need for cruelty, providing comfort and guidance to Zhu so she may not lose touch with her humanity.
The book underlines the gender ambiguity of both Ouyang and Zhu Chongba with sensitivity and depth. Ouyong is castrated male. Zhu is a female assuming a male identity. They are both on a ruthless path to achieve something they believe in. Even though they are not male, they are out to seize the glory that is the sole preserve of an alpha male. We live in times where we are taught to be sensitive to people with alternative gender identities. Even so, we know how much people who do not confirm to generally accepted gender norms suffer. This suffering must have multiplied thousand fold in an era that even women had no voice. It is wonderful to see people who embody the other sex fight to win their rightful glory in perilous times as those.
It has been three days since I finished reading this book. It refuses to leave my head and I wish its sequel was out already. The book is planned in two parts, the second of which, titled He Who Drowned the World is to be released in August 2023. I can hardly wait.
This novel is set during the waning of Qing Dynasty which has its last emperor, Toghon Temur on the throne. The Red Turban rebellion is beginning to plague the emperor, in the 14th century China. Soon it is obvious that a change of guards is in order. In these tumultuous times Zhu Chongba steals the fate of her brother and marches relentlessly on to realise her potential and carve her own path. Her early years as a hunger struck little girl who has to battle for every morsel, not only because food is scarce but also because as a girl, she has no right to food. This hones her sense of survival. Her natural intelligence and her hard learned survival skills equip her in effort to rise up in the world.
The writing is wonderfully evocative of the era and the travails of the story’s characters. I was glued to the book and listened till my ears went quite numb. I am sure I am preordering the second book and listening to it or reading it as soon as it arrives.
Thandapani 
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