In The Undertaking of Lily Chen , Deshi, a hapless young man living in northern China, is suddenly expelled from ordinary life when his brother dies in an accident. Holding Deshi responsible for his brother's death, his parents send him on a mission to acquire a corpse bride to accompany his brother into the afterlife, in accordance with an ancient Chinese tradition that has many modern adherents. Eligible dead girls are in short supply, however. When Deshi falls into company with a young--and single--woman named Lily, he sees a solution to his problems. The only hitch is that willful, tart-tongued Lily is still very much alive. As Deshi and Lily adventure through a breathtaking mountain landscape, meeting a host of eccentric characters and dangerous adversaries along the way, Deshi just can't decide whether to kiss the girl or to kill her. Danica Novgorodoff, author of Slow Storm and Refresh, Refresh , brings her distinctive voice and gorgeous, moody watercolors to this wry, beautiful, and surprising literary graphic novel. *Starred Review* In contemporary China, Deshi accidentally kills his older brother, Wei, by shoving him in front of a moving jeep, and his furious mother, calling on the ancient tradition of ghost marriage, demands that he find the unmarried Wei a corpse bride, a recently deceased single woman who will accompany him in the afterlife. Guilt-ridden Deshi seeks the help of a matchmaker, a grave robber, and a hospital attendant before he runs into stubborn, spirited Lily, who would make a perfect bride if she weren’t so alive. Is Deshi prepared to commit murder to fulfill his mother’s request? Or will he find a way to give his parents some peace while preserving his own happiness? Novgorodoff’s exaggerated, cartoonish figures appear against spare, inky backgrounds resembling traditional Chinese landscape paintings, as if history and heritage loom over Deshi and Lily as they make their way forward to their futures. Deshi’s grief and guilt, meanwhile, are hauntingly, gorgeously rendered in smoky, aqueous watercolor washes, which subtly suggest a gaping mouth and face hovering over Lily and spilling between panels. It’s a simple, darkly comic story, but Novgorodoff’s artful juxtaposition of traditional and contemporary imagery elevates it to eloquently echo a deeper, all-encompassing tension between past and progress. --Sarah Hunter “This stunning and intriguing graphic novel takes the reader on a brother's journey to find a bride for his deceased sibling . . . Everything about this graphic novel is striking. It is not easily forgotten.” ― VOYA “If you haven't read any of Danica Novgorodoff's books, you're missing out.” ― USA Today “Beautiful, haunting, and utterly human.” ― Gene Luen Yang, author of American Born Chinese “A vast, dangerous tale… Novgorodoff has created a world filled with ghosts, regrets, dreams, and love.” ― Brian Selznick, author of The Invention of Hugo Cabret In the mountains of northern China, ancient custom demands that every man have a lover to keep him company in the afterlife. Deshi Li's brother is dead--and unmarried. Which means that Deshi must find him an eligible body before the week is up. Lily Chen, sweet as a snakebite, needs money and a fast ride out of town. Haunted by the gods of their ancestors and the expectations of the new world, Deshi and Lily embark on a journey, with two very different destinations in mind. They travel through a land where the ground is hard and the graves are shallow, where marriage can be murder, and where Lily Chen is wanted--dead and alive. “I’ve always been interested in visual storytelling and narrative painting or drawing,” says Danica Novgorodoff.  “I get my best ideas while traveling, but it takes forever for them to become books.  I think about stories for years.  I write before I draw.  I read before I write.  I can only make art when I’m happy – no tortured artist stuff for me.”   Originally from Louisville, Kentucky, Danica Novgorodoff is a writer, painter, photographer, and comics artist who now lives in New York City.  She has also worked as a horse trainer in Virginia, an assistant to photographer Sally Mann, and an artist review writer for galleries in Chelsea and SoHo.  In 2006 she won the Isotope Award for her first published mini-comic, A Late Freeze , which was later nominated for an Eisner award.    “Maybe comics are awesome because there are fewer rules.  They can be anything!  They’re the best of both the worlds of art and literature – the possibilities are endless.”