Description
In a post–Tiananmen China rendered both intimate and absurd, a satirical novel unfolds through a series of encounters and stories that expose the pressures of public life, private desire, and political constraint. An abandoned actress’s desperate act to reach her lover sets the tone for a world where art, ambition, and survival collide, while a literary editor—overshadowed by his more successful novelist wife—finds unexpected resilience amid humiliation and control. Framed by conversations at a noodle shop, the book’s shifting vignettes read like the work a writer would dare to produce if censorship loosened its grip. With Ma Jian’s sharp, darkly comic style and dissident edge, it explores themes of voice and silence, the cost of creativity, and how ordinary people navigate systems that demand conformity.
Available Editions
paperback
CHATTO & WINDUS
Published Jan 1, 2004
179 pages
ISBN: 0701176059
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Details
First Published
2004
Language
eng
Translation
From: chi
Content Warnings
No content warnings identified.