Whisper, a novel set in modern-day Taipei, opens with a middle-aged couple on distinctly bad terms with each other. The man is a taxi-driver and his wife works in a restaurant. Because of various heavy penalties imposed on them after some accidents at work they now live in a barely habitable shack. A daughter is absent, for no clear reason. The husband drinks and smokes heavily, while his wife endures yet another accident at work that’s likely to result in even more compensation payments.
In addition, each of them begins to experience what initially they take to be hallucinations. The