La Casa dello Spirito Dorato

A Mei Wang Mystery #3

by Diane Wei Liang, Stefania De Franco (Translator)

Sullo sfondo della Pechino post-olimpica dei nostri giorni, una metropoli rumorosa e frenetica in cui ricchezza e povertà sembrano crescere a ritmo incalzante come le selve di grattacieli, il destino di Mei Wang, giovane detective privata, si incrocia con quello della potente famiglia Song, proprietaria della Casa dello Spirito Dorato, un’antica azienda farmaceutica che produce una pillola per guarire i cuori infranti. Ingaggiata dall’affascinante Wudan, avvocato del Sud che cura gli interessi della famiglia, e aiutata dal fidato collaboratore Gupin, Mei indaga sul complicato intreccio di interessi che sta erodendo la solidità finanziaria dell’azienda.
Mentre le sue ricerche sono ostacolate dall’onnipresente e corrotta burocrazia cinese e dai suoi ispettori, che minacciano di far chiudere la sua agenzia, Mei si trova coinvolta in un intrigo che si tinge pericolosamente di giallo. Intanto, il tormentato rapporto con la madre e l’inevitabile confronto con la sorella Jin, celebre star televisiva, la costringono a stilare un difficile bilancio personale, tra le ferite, le ombre e i segreti di un passato famigliare segnato dal regime maoista, e l’instabilità della propria vita sentimentale e della relazione a distanza col fidanzato Yaping.

Genres: Thriller

308 pages, Paperback

First published August 30, 2011

About the author

Diane Wei Liang was born in Beijing. She spent part of her childhood with her parents in a labor camp in a remote region of China, and the other part in Beijing with her mother when her parents were forced to live and work in different cities. She studied psychology at Peking University. In 1989 she took part in the Student Democracy Movement and was in Tiananmen Square. Later that year, she left China for the U.S. Liang has a PhD in Business Administration from Carnegie Mellon University and was a business professor in the U.S. and U.K. for over ten years. She lives in London with her family."

Reviews

[Elede · Rating 4 out of 5]

Primer libro del 2020 terminado, y final de la saga de Mei Wang. Me ha parecido el libro más redondo de la trilogía, aunando la intimidad y la instrospección de los personajes y el contexto histórico del primer libro, con la novela policiaca del segundo. Creo por eso que es el más completo de los 3, y un buen cierre a la historia.
Como en sus otros libros, el estilo de Diane Wei me llama poderosamente la atención, con su escritura poética e íntima, sin pretensiones. Recomendable como lectura ligera para conocer algo más la cultura china y su historia reciente.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review covers all three books in Diane Wei Liang's Wang Mei detective series, and for me, it was also a first taste of Chinese noir fiction, which turned out to be more interesting than I expected.

The first two books are fairly straightforward as detective stories. The plots work, the mysteries get solved, but nothing there would make you sit up straight. What does stand out, and what the critics have been right about, is Liang's ability to bring Beijing to life. She captures the city with a precision and a feeling that sticks with you. I had never been to Beijing during the years the books cover, the 1980s through the early 2000s, and yet you come away with something that feels real.

What I kept coming back to across all three books is how Liang handles the psychological damage her characters carry. She is genuinely interested in what the Maoist era did to people, what the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and Tiananmen Square left behind, not as history lessons but as things that quietly shape how her characters move through the world. The way that damage passes between generations is one of the most interesting threads in the whole series, and it shows a side of China that most people in the West simply never get to see.

The third book, *The House of the Golden Spirit*, is the strongest of the three. Liang has always loaded her characters with a lot of personal history, some of it relevant, some of it not quite. In this last volume, she manages to pull it all together into something that actually lands. The characters feel real, the story goes somewhere worth going, and it wraps up the trilogy in a satisfying way.

These are not the best detective novels you will ever read, but they offer something that is harder to find. A real sense of place, characters with genuine weight behind them, and a window into a version of China that does not get much coverage. If you are curious about what crime fiction looks like when it comes from a completely different world than the one you know, this is a good place to start.

[Stefania Saviane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una investigatrice privata in un paese che non li ammette, con una sorella che è una star del mondo dello spettacolo ed è sposata con un ricco imprenditore, nell'attesa di impalmare il proprio ex fidanzato di rientro dall'estero dove ha avuto una gran carriera si caccia nei guai lavorando ad un caso di affari sporchi.
Poi, è scritto bene, e la protagonista è simpatica, e c'è una critica alle istituzioni corrotte.
Ma insomma niente di più.

34/52 ATY book challenge week 16: book with a building in the title

[Pachy Pedia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Punto y final de la trilogía. Es el más policíaco de los tres y, sin embargo, el que me ha gustado un poquillo menos. Me ha gustado ese final para Mei.

[Leido]

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