After Love

After Love is a short-story collection by Hong Kong writer Yi Shu, first published in Hong Kong by Cosmos Books in 1987, later reprinted by several publishers, with a Taiwanese edition from Linbai Publishing House. The title is a pun: it refers both to "after love" and to one of the stories in the book, "After Love." Besides the title story, the collection also includes "The Strong Woman," "The Drunk Flower Guest," "Sisters," "Aunt," and "Me and... a Ghost." The 1987 Hong Kong edition runs from page 1 to page 207, indicating that the stories vary in length and are mostly short pieces. Yi Shu's short stories are often narrated in the first person by women, depicting the tug-of-war among career, marriage, family relationships, and self-worth with clean efficiency: how people whose relationships have run their course pick up the pieces, how those rising in their careers are misunderstood in intimate relationships, and how single women arrange their lives and desires. The pacing is fast, dialogue is dense, and paragraphs are often one or two sentences long; the tone is cool with a touch of self-mockery, and endings often turn with a single stroke. This edition is the Hong Kong Cosmos Books edition; the stories included and publication years may differ between editions, so please rely on the copyright page of the physical copy when purchasing.