Allen & Unwin snaps up Lu's 'moving' debut

Allen & Unwin has acquired The Funeral Cryer, a debut novel by Wenyan Lu about a professional mourner living in rural China.

Senior editor Kate Ballard bought UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, from Kemi Ogunsanwo at The Good Literary Agency. It will publish in hardback and e-book in May 2023 as a lead title on the Atlantic Books imprint. 

Told from the perspective of an unnamed woman in contemporary rural China, the novel follows a middle-aged woman who long ago accepted the realities of her life. She is avoided by fellow villagers because of the stigma attached to her job as a professional mourner, and under-appreciated by "The Husband", whose fecklessness has pushed the couple close to the brink of break-up. 

"But just when things couldn’t be any bleaker, the Funeral Cryer takes a leap of faith – and in so doing things start to take a surprising turn for the better ," the synopsis reads. "The Funeral Cryer is an unforgettable depiction of one woman’s midlife reawakening – dark, moving and wry, it’s both a stark portrait of female desire and an illuminating depiction of a ‘left-behind’ society."

Ballard said: "I was fascinated by the idea of funeral-crying as a profession, and then immediately caught up in the narrator’s story thanks to Wenyan’s singular, striking voice on the page. I was rapt as her protagonist’s tragi-comic midlife coming-of-age tale unspooled in a bleak, moving and utterly unforgettable way to reveal a contemporary ‘left-behind’ society we so rarely see depicted in fiction. This novel will have really broad appeal and I can’t wait to share The Funeral Cryer’s tale with readers far and wide when we publish in hardback next spring."

Lu is a Chinese-born-and-raised teacher and translator, and the winner of the SI Leeds Literary Prize 2020. Her unpublished historical novel The Martyr’s Hymn was also longlisted for the SI Leeds Literary Prize 2018 and Bridport First Novel Prize 2019. 

"I am thrilled to be publishing my debut novel The Funeral Cryer with Atlantic Books," she said. "I am grateful to my editor Kate and the team at Atlantic for their dedication and their belief in me. I would also like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to my agent Kemi for her passion in my writing and her ongoing support. As a debut author, it has always been in my dream to see my novel on the bookshelves, and I look forward to publication day in 2023."