The Scream at Dusk

This is a novel brimming with a strong female sensibility, a story about women. Xiaoxiao is a career woman who came to Shanghai to make her way, and a single mother. Not in the usual sense of being divorced: she planned from the start to raise her child on her own. Sister Liangzhi, Xiaoxiao’s distant cousin by marriage, didn’t want to stay home after retiring, so she came to Shanghai to find work as a nanny. She’s the sort of trendsetter who thinks, “The world is so big, I want to go and see it.” Aunt Yang, who does hourly housework for Xiaoxiao’s family, is probably a Shanghai local. Would a Shanghai local work as a nanny? Sister Liangzhi’s daughter-in-law never appears directly in the story, but plays a behind-the-scenes role in the tussle between Liangzhi and her son. Each woman has her own background and her own conflicts. They disagree and come together, adapt and clash. Every facet shines on its own, and once they form a whole, their tangled relationships have the irresistible charm of a detective novel.