The Book of Crows
In ancient China of 2000 years ago, a young girl, Jade, is kidnapped and sold to the Whorehouse of a Thousand Sighs. Having no means of escape, she finds friendship with the other girls and settles in to this new life. When an injured soldier arrives at the brothel, Jade takes care of him, intrigued by a box that the soldier jealously guards. It is rumoured that there is a book containing all the secrets of the world, everything that has happened or is about to happen.
In the 20th century, a suspicious landslide near Lanzhou and the disappearance of a bureaucrat’s friend sets him on a mission to discover the truth about the suspicious dealings of the Black Light Mining Company. Obstacles are set in his path at every turn; at the heart of the mystery is the Book of Crows.
A Franciscan monk travelling the Silk Road relates his deathbed confession to a young colleague. He has for years searched the 5th gospel, aka The Book of Crows. To know the future, to have total knowledge, he believes must benefit mankind.
A grieving Chinese poet is summoned to the emperor’s palace. Dare he tell the emperor that the mythical Book of Crows is just a myth?
This is an allegorical tale featuring a disparate group of people connected by the mythical Book of Crows. A book spanning the millennia and told in instalments but not in chronological order makes for a tedious read, with the reader having to return to previous sections to refresh the memory where the last one finished. Any one of the individual stories could be a self-contained book.
