Sandalwood Death

Sandalwood Death is a 2001 novel by Nobel prize-winning author Mo Yan. The English version, translated by Howard Goldblatt, was released in 2013 by the University of Oklahoma Press.

Plot summary
Maoqiang (猫腔) opera singer Sun Bing, a leader of the Boxer Rebellion, is sentenced to death for attacking at the hands of his daughter's father-in-law, an executioner known for killing by "sandalwood death," a slow method of punishment in which the victim is skewered with a cured sandalwood rod.

In his author's note, Yan writes that he had difficulty telling friends what his book was about, eventually electing to tell them it was "all about sound."