Kinder Than Solitude by Yiyun Li

This is brilliant writing by an intellectually and emotionally brilliant author. I think this is one the most finely crafted novels that I have read in a long time. And it's complex, deep and thought-provoking, while telling a story of four childhood friends who have grown up in  Beijing during the 1990s. One of them is poisoned — possibly by someone in the circle — and the group drifts apart, numbed by the experience.

"For Shaoai, the damage is physiological, shutting down her body’s faculties one by one until she is trapped in bloated flesh, where she will languish for 21 years before her murder is finally consummated. For the others, the poisons will be more subtle. Each will erect an emotional wall, a hermetic husk, and, in the end, each will be as unrecognizable as the victim."

Take time reading this novel; it's worth savoring every passage.