The Morgue Keeper

by Ruyan Meng

A devastating story of quiet resistance, grief, and the will to survive.

ARC Review

Pub Date: October 15, 2025

Publisher: 7.13 Books

It will take me some time to recover from this book.  How lucky am I to be able to.

The Morgue Keeper is set in 1966 China during the Cultural Revolution, this story follows morgue keeper Qing Yuan, a quiet man who tends to the dead and tries to stay invisible in a system designed to crush the soul. But when an unnamed body, “#19”, lands on his table, his routine life of survival is shattered.

This is not an easy read. There is cruelty, humiliation, state-sanctioned violence. The depictions of torture and death are vivid and unbearable. I had to walk away more than once because the heartbreak was relentless. It’s the kind of pain that begs the world not to forget… if you've ever studied history… or even just looked around lately.

What kept me going, what made this story unforgettable, was Qing Yuan himself. A man who asked for so little and still gave what he had. A cigarette. A bowl of food. A kind word. He was surrounded by people who had been discarded, abused, called trash and he saw their humanity when no one else would. Even when he was beaten, threatened, and stripped of everything, he didn’t stop offering what scraps of dignity he could.

There’s a moment in the book that reads like a love letter to survival:

“They shared indescribable pain. They had loved, they'd been loved, they had triumphed, they had lost. They were still alive. They wanted still to live, and more, to love again, despite.”

It’s a brutal story, but also full of tenderness. It reminded me of Human Acts by Han Kang: that same layering of political horror with intimate humanity. You don't finish this kind of book with clean feelings. You finish changed.

Would I recommend it?

Yes, but not for everyone. If you want comfort, this isn’t the book. If you want to witness what it means to hold onto empathy in a world designed to destroy it, this one will stay with you.

To readers of historical and Asian literature: read it.

Thank you to NetGalley and 7.13 Books for the ARC. I am truly grateful.

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