"A surreal, queer, coming-of-age mystery set between New York and Shanghai."-TIME, A Best Book of Fall
A Best Book of October at People, Chicago Review of Books, and The Millions
Finalist for the 2024 Big Other Book Award
Newly single Meadow Liu is house-sitting for his friend, artist Selma Shimizu, when he stumbles upon The Masquerade, a translated novel about a masked ball in 1930s Shanghai. The author's name is the same as Meadow's own in Chinese, Liu Tian-a coincidence that proves to be the first of many strange happenings. Over the course of a single summer, Meadow must contend with a possibly haunted apartment, a mirror that plays tricks, a stranger speaking in riddles at the bar where he works, as well as a startling revelation about a former lover. And when Selma vanishes from her artist residency, Meadow is forced to question everything he knows as the boundaries between real and imagined begin to blur.
Exploring social, cultural, and sexual identities in New York, Shanghai, and beyond, Mike Fu's Masquerade is a skillfully layered, brilliantly interwoven debut novel of friendship, queer longing, and worlds on the brink, asking how we can find ourselves among ghosts of all kinds, and who we can trust when nothing-and no one-is as it seems. A surreal, queer, coming-of-age mystery set between New York and Shanghai.-TIME, A Best Book of Fall
Beautiful., captivating.-People Magazine, A Best Book of October
Dream-like. . . . a meandering, surreal, and unsettling search for identity as Meadow examines the masks he's worn throughout his adult life.-Associated Press
Packed with mystery, travels through history, and simultaneously gorgeous and sad meditations on what it means to be torn between two places, reading this novel was like adventuring into a world so like our own while beckoning to something more.-Chicago Review of Books, A Best Book of October
An eerie and rewarding story of a queer Chinese American grappling with his sense of self. …. This funhouse of a novel is worth seeking out.-Publishers Weekly
A magically realist novel of Millennial friendship and art.-LitHub, A Most Anticipated Book of 2024
What it's about: Housesitting for an artist friend in present-day New York, Meadow Liu stumbles on a novel whose author shares his name-the first of many strange, haunting happenings that lead up to the mysterious disappearance of Meadow's friend.
Who it's for: fans of Ed Park and Alexander Chee.
-The Millions, A Best Book of October
An enchanting and vibrant story about a young person discovering the truth about identity and reality. Fu provides impressive plotting coupled with brilliant prose.-Debutiful, A Best Book of November
Sinuous, surprising…. intoxicating… electric … a novel of illusions and warped reflections worth getting lost in.-Foreword Reviews
Dynamic and enigmatic. . . . A vibrant narrative collaged out of memory, hallucination, and stories-within-stories, Masquerade is bildungsroman that explores queerness, cultural identity, agency, and individuality.
-West Trade Review
Set in Shanghai and New York, Masquerade is replete with odd strangers and strange disappearances, eerie coincidences, and potential ghosts. What's not to love?
-San Francisco Bay Times
Questions of identity, reality, and possibility unfold.
-Library Journal
Where Masquerade excels is in the way it evokes a lived-in version of New York-Brooklyn in particular-even as it also takes its protagonist to increasingly surreal places, both literally and metaphorically.
-Reactor
An exciting debut from a supremely confident writer. . . . an affecting, arresting bildungsroman.-Full Stop
Compelling.-China Books Review
Fu does not limit himself to the typical fare of any one genre. Indeed, in many respects, he wants to try them all-mystery novel, philosophical novel, queer coming-of-age-but perhaps most overt is his fascination with t
