“Edinburgh” by Alexander Chee

“After he dies, missing Peter for me is like swimming in the cold spot of the lake; everyone else laughing in the warm water under some too-close summer sun. This is the answer to the question no one asks me.

The time that I think will be the last time I see Peter, isn’t, as it happens. There’d be one more to come.”

With this first paragraph of Edinburgh, Alexander Chee had me hooked like a fish. All he had to do was slowly reel me in, and that is what he proceeded to do with his minimally elegant, lyrical and poetic prose. Throughout the book Chee threads Korean Shamanism and animism to the story, creating a mysterious and mystical mood.

The main story is about a boy named Aphias Zhe, nicknamed Fee. He is gifted with an angelic soprano voice and joins a professional boys’ choir. At the choir he discovers his love of singing and his first love, Peter. Tragically, the choir director is a