A Mouthful of Dust

It is the task of the clerics of the Singing Hills to collect stories. That, you might think, is not particularly horrible or dangerous. But not every story has a happy ending, and not everyone wants their story to be told.

The town of Baolin is famous for three things. It is famous for its soil, in which fabulous melons are grown. It is famous for a pork dish whose recipe is a closely guarded secret. And it is famous for a terrible famine which afflicted the town within living memory, and which many of the townsfolk did not survive. And so Cleric Chih and Almost Brilliant are sent to Baolin to collect the stories of the survivors, if they are prepared to tell them.

Nghi Vo’s Singing Hills novellas are, I suppose, technically horror, given that they deal primarily with the doings of demons. Then again, Chinese folklore is full of stories about demons. I suspect that there isn’t much else to talk about. Famine demons are, of course, particularly terrible, both for the death they spread in their wake, and for the terrible things that people will do to survive them.

A Mouthful of Dust is named for the cookies that were made by the mason’s guild in Baolin to help feed the townsfolk during the famine. They are made of brick dust rather than flour, with just a sprinkling of salt on top to give the mouth something to savour. They are by no means the most terrible things that the people of Baolin ate in those awful times.

Cleric Chih, being insatiably curious, is ideally suited to being a Singing Hills monk. But their curiosity can also get them into trouble. That is partly because there are those who survived the famine who do not want their stories told. And it is partly because there are those who did not survive who want revenge.

As with the other tales in the series, this latest installment is small but perfectly formed. It is, perhaps, not a tale for anyone with a queasy stomach, but it is a reminder of what horrors result from famine. Despite our obvious wealth, there are parts of our planet where famine is still commonplace, and with a worsening climate such things will only become more common. Vo has given us a timely reminder that famine demons are to be feared, not to be wished upon ourselves.

Title: A Mouthful of Dust
By: Nghi Vo
Publisher: Tor Dot Com
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