2016 Golden Tripod Award Recommended Title
Author is the Recipient of the 2016 Wu San-Lien Awards - Literature (Taiwan's major lifetime achievement award in art and literature)
Dubbed by some national media as Taiwan’s version of In Cold Blood, Ping Lu’s novel The River Darkens is a fictionalized retelling of the famous Mommouth Coffee double murder case that occurred in Taiwan in 2013. The author goes beyond media hype to re-examine the case’s two most important female agents: the prime murder suspect, Chia-Chen, and Mrs. Hung, one of the two victims. Ping Lu’s brilliant exposition humanizes both characters, exposing desires and secrets, making their roles in the case more complicated and more intriguing.
With its masterful blend of fiction, psychological analysis, and social commentary, Ping Lu’s novel stands out clearly as a landmark of Taiwanese contemporary fiction.