The Dead Can’t Make a Living

This fifth installment in the Taipei Night Market series is a heartfelt crime novel that reaches deep into the lives of a rich collection of characters, all of whom have some sort of relationship with young Jing-nan, the owner of the most successful food stand in the market. It starts off when Jing-nan is throwing out the garbage only to find a corpse propped up against the dumpsters. Who is this man? He turns out to be Juan Ramos, a Philippine national who came to Taipei to work in ZHD, a vast, exploitative food-processing plant. Within days, Ramos’s family arrives, seeking an explanation. Was his death a cover-up? Curiously, Jing-nan’s gangster uncle, Big Eye, also becomes fascinated by what could be going down at ZHD. In one of the most compelling episodes in the series, Jing-nan goes to work at ZHD undercover, posing as a migrant laborer. Serious work, but Jing-nan brings along plenty of humor while still following the lives of undocumented immigrants and their living conditions.