UNDER FISHBONE CLOUDS is both the story of a country, and of a young couple. Although it chronicles the birth of modern China with incredible insight and accuracy, the novel really belongs to Yuying and Jinyi.


When the Kitchen God is challenged by the Jade Emperor to fathom the workings of the human heart, he chooses to follow the life of Jinyi and his wife Yuying, from their blossoming love as a young married couple until their old age, in hope of finding an answer. He follows them as they flee bombings during the tumultuous civil war, watches as the Cultural Revolution splits their family in two, and lives inside their hearts as they endure the loss of two children, homesickness, and isolation, all while keeping alive a love that survives famine, forced labor, and even death. Using the story of their life together, as well as traditional Chinese folktales and myths, the Kitchen God illuminates the most impenetrable aspects the human condition, and in the process, finds answers to his own questions.

Sam Meekings's remarkable and poetic writing contains insights that belong to a writer twice his age. Part love story and part historical narrative, UNDER FISHBONE CLOUDS carries the weight and beauty of a lifetime's achievement.