Thank you NetGalley and Harvill Secker for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Braised Pork is perfect for anyone who likes fiction with magical realism themes that was the perfect length. Jia Jia is a widow in Beijing that is determined to find the "fish-man" that her husband sketched before mysteriously dying while in the bathtub. Braised Pork follows Jia Jia as she follows her husband's itinerary for a recent trip to Tibet to see if there is any connection to his death and the "fish-man".

Braised Pork fit many themes within a book that was well under 300 pages, which many books can't say in 2020. Themes included magical realism, dealing with becoming a widow and family reconnection. Magical realism took the forefront as Jia Jia experiences dream like states in which she follows the 'fish-man' into a dark water where she cannot see anything, but is unable to remember what his face looks like when she goes to paint/sketch it once she's awake.

Jia Jia reconnected with her father, whom she hasn't been close with since he left she and her mom when she was young, thanks to her step-mother. The conversation between Jia Jia and her father after she returns from Tibet really brought the plot together and connected the title and familial connection to the 'fish-man'.

I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to read a short, magical realism novel as An Yu raised the bar with her debut, Braised Pork.