The Incarnations by Susan Barker

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China, ~1200 CE

"Who are you? you must be wondering. I am your soulmate, your old friend, and I have come back to this city of sixteen million in search of you. I pity your poor wife, Driver Wang. What's the bond of matrimony compared to the bond we have shared for over a thousand years? What will happen to her when I reappear in your life? What will become of her then?"

The Incarnations by Susan Barker is a multi-layered novel that spans over a thousand years of Chinese history, blending elements of historical fiction, Chinese folklore and philosophical inquiry. The protagonist, Wang Jun, is a Beijing taxi driver who starts receiving mysterious letters from a person claiming to be his soulmate from previous lives. These letters recount Wang’s incarnations in various periods of China’s turbulent history, each involving violence, betrayal, and trauma. The story explores fate, reincarnation, and the interconnectedness of lives over centuries, as Wang struggles to reconcile the mystical past with his present. It reflects on China’s historical legacy, and on the cyclical nature of human experience.

Wang Jun is the central character. As mentioned before - he is a taxi driver in modern Beijing (on the eve of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, to be exact), who receives disturbing letters detailing his past lives. These letters were sent by his Soulmate; a mysterious figure who claims to have shared multiple lives with Wang Jun, in which they were friends or enemies. Yida - Wang’s wife who remains unaware of the letters, but brings an element of stability in Wang’s unsatisfactory married life. Wang’s feeble father - once an authoritarian figure in his life introduces the reader to Wang’s childhood trauma, and adds to the tension of the story.

Though The Incarnations is set in contemporary Beijing, it spans over a thousand years through flashbacks narrated in the soulmate’s letters to Wang. These historical events occur during the Tang Dynasty, the Mongol conquest of China and Mao’s Cultural Revolution. These settings are crucial periods not just in China’s history, but also in the story which revolves around intense experiences including violence, betrayal and deception. The overarching message reflects how the past shapes individual and collective consciousness. 

Wang Jun leads a relatively mundane life until he begins receiving anonymous letters from a person claiming to be his soulmate from previous lives. The letters recount violent and treacherous episodes from Wang’s past incarnations, set in different periods of Chinese history. Each past life involves betrayal and pain, suggesting that Wang and his soulmate are doomed to repeat these cycles of suffering. Wang grows increasingly paranoid, fearing that someone is watching him. Meanwhile, his present life is complicated by his strained relationship with his authoritarian father, his distant marriage to Yida, and the pressure of modern urban life. As the letters continue to arrive, Wang is forced to confront his growing sense of unease and the possibility that the past may not be as distant as he believes. 

“History is not what was, but what is written and remembered.”

The historical events that house the flashbacks each highlight the darker side of human nature, and life itself. Genghis Khan’s invasion of China (1205) is used to mark the violence of conquest and gets the book off to a brutal start. The Opium Wars (1839) that the British Empire fought against China critiques the impact of imperialism and exploitation of China’s sovereignty by the threat of foreign military force. Mao’s Cultural Revolution explores political oppression and ideological extremism that fundamentally changed China from within. All three periods of time brought about cataclysmic changes on the personal and political level. There is a strong theme of struggle - not only against powerful forces like the Mongol Horde and the British war machine, but also against the very nature of life, and inescapable conflict. 

The novel uses a polyphonic narrative style. Wang’s modern-day story is told in the third person, while the letters from his mysterious soulmate are written in the first person. This dual perspective adds layers to the story, blending past and present. The events across different time periods can easily be considered stand-alone short fiction, but their part in the soulmates' journey makes the book what it is and leaves the reader wanting more. The execution is excellent, and readers will be left curious about how the author handles these themes in her other works. 

Three broad themes that the books explores are:

Reincarnation and the inescapability of one’s destiny. 

The impact of historic events on personal identity. 

Loyalty, betrayal & redemption. 

The Incarnations is compared to Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, as both books narrate events over large swathes of time while interconnecting lives. Surreal themes like reincarnation have drawn comparison with Haruki Murakami’s ‘The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle’, and Kate Atkinsons ‘Life After Life’ similarly explores reincarnations and different versions of life. One blurb even compares it to Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children, but The Incarnations is its own grimdark tale. For fans of historical fiction - the author’s stark worldview will find echo in more grounded stories - like Philipp Meyer’s The Son, or George RR Martin’s - A Storm of Swords. The book is a genre-bending work of fiction, mixing traditional historical events with mystical concepts like reincarnations with philosophical inquiry. 

“We are born, we live, we die. We are born again. But it is not a clean slate, as I once hoped. The souls remember everything.”