Check out our Most Anticipated Books for 2025

Excerpt from The Wedding Party by Liu Xinwu, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Summary |  Excerpt |  Reviews |  Beyond the Book |  Readalikes |  Genres & Themes |  Author Bio

The Wedding Party by Liu Xinwu

The Wedding Party

by Liu Xinwu
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus:
  • Readers' Rating:
  • First Published:
  • Dec 2, 2021, 400 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Nov 2021, 399 pages
  • Rate this book

  • Buy This Book

About this Book

Print Excerpt


Seeing his useless son slouching around in a borrowed windbreaker, Xiangdong's father hollered, "You shameless boy! Take that off at once!"

His mom hurried over and tried to soothe her husband. "Your blood pressure! No need to get worked up, let's talk this over, nice and calm." Then, to Xiangdong, "Tell your father you know what you did was wrong. After lunch, go find your friend and swap back. You hear me?"

Feeling like he had his mom's protection, Xiangdong sat fearlessly at the table and said, "What's the big deal? All we did was swap clothes." With that, he picked up his chopsticks.

This enraged his dad beyond measure. Stamping his foot, he declared, "Don't touch that food! This house has no room for someone like you. Get out of here right now!"

Xiangdong stood, shrugged, and walked out the door, ignoring his parents' screams.

He wandered eastward to the Shicha Seas and squeezed into a crowded pavilion—a few local residents often gather here to sing Beijing opera. Naturally, Xiangdong isn't actually interested in opera, he just enjoys making fun of how stupid the musicians and performers look. Next, he went to the Front Sea, currently frozen over, and menacingly "borrowed" a pair of ice skates from another guy his age. After some skating, he suddenly felt ferociously hungry, and that's how he ended up on the wide avenue leading to the Drum Tower.

Excerpted from The Wedding Party by Liu Xinwu. Copyright © 2021 by Liu Xinwu. Excerpted by permission of AmazonCrossing. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Beyond the Book:
  Life in 1980s China

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: The Message
    The Message
    by Ta-Nehisi Coates
    It does not surprise me that Ta-Nehisi Coates' The Message is one of the most important books I've ...
  • Book Jacket
    The House of Doors
    by Tan Twan Eng
    Every July, I take on the overly ambitious goal of reading all of the novels chosen as longlist ...
  • Book Jacket: The Puzzle Box
    The Puzzle Box
    by Danielle Trussoni
    During the tumultuous last days of the Tokugawa shogunate, a 17-year-old emperor known as Meiji ...
  • Book Jacket
    Something, Not Nothing
    by Sarah Leavitt
    In 2020, after a lifetime of struggling with increasingly ill health, Sarah Leavitt's partner, ...

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Pony Confidential
    by Christina Lynch

    In this whimsical mystery, a grumpy pony must clear his beloved human's name from a murder accusation.

Who Said...

Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

X M T S

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.