Hundred Ghost Soup

By: Robert Chansky

A Beijing orphan gets stuck in a desert ghost town with fox spirits serving him fine false meals while he starves. They will make a fabulous soup to trick the Minister of Fate into freeing them from a curse. But someone’s the main ingredient. He’s got to peel away illusions, delve into the secret files of the People’s Republic, and trick the best of foxes at his own game.

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Book Description

A Beijing orphan is nearly eighteen. He wants a family and a name, if only for a while. He hacks adoption papers to get them.

He also gets: a long train ride into an empty station in a ghost town. Ghosts. Their leaders, calling themselves Mr. and Mrs. Vulpin, are his new parents. They are illusion-casting fox spirits, glamorous, clever, and trapped. They need him to free themselves of the ghosts.

Our hero works for them and accepts their flaws so long as they pretend to be a family. But then he discovers their wonderful meals are illusory. Are the Vulpins up to no good? And the People's Republic of China will never allow spirits to possess a town. To save them all, he must travel back to Beijing, rifle the Politburo's files, and find a Minister's secrets. When he kindles the wrath of the People's Liberation Army and the Minister of Fate himself, he must penetrate layers of illusions, decide whom he can trust, and learn to cook.

And then there is the matter of the soup's main ingredient: him.

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