Description: Praise for China Dream A Financial Times Best Book of the Year A The Millions Most Anticipated Book of the Month and Year One of Vulture ''s Spring Books to Watch Out For "Red Guards meet Kurt Vonnegut . . . powerful!" --Margaret Atwood, via Twitter " China Dream is a sharper political allegory than Mr. Ma''s earlier novels. It crackles with bruising satire of Chinese officialdom, and an acerbic wit that vaguely recalls Gary Shteyngart''s sendup of Russian oligarchs in Absurdistan , or even Nikolai Gogol''s portraits of Russia''s provincial aristocrats in Dead Souls . . . China Dream may be the purest distillation yet of Mr. Ma''s talent for probing the country''s darkest corners and exposing what he regards as the Communist Party''s moral failings." --Mike Ives, The New York Times "Jian, whose work has been banned in China for the past 30 years, creates a dystopian present-day China in this narrative about power, history and the effects of materialism on a society." --Annabel Gutterman, Time , 1 of the 10 New Books You Should Read This Month "A startling expos of China''s moral crises in the rare dystopian book that is set in the present-day, rather than the future. That it''s an absurd, wild ride makes its eye-opening effect that much more unsettling." --David Canfield, Entertainment Weekly , 1 of 20 New Books to Read This Month "Novelists like Ma Jian (especially his recent China Dream ) are producing sly and savage works of international literature, exploring--and exploding--the implications of China''s recent accelerated modernization program and its global economic ambitions under the leadership of Xi." --Joseph Salvatore, The Los Angeles Times "Ma has a marksman''s eye for the contradictions of his country and his generation, and the responsibilities and buried dreams they carry. His perceptiveness, combined with a genius for capturing people who come from all classes, occupations, backgrounds and beliefs; for identifying the fallibility, comedy and despair of living in absurd times, has allowed him to compassionately detail China''s complex inner lives. Censoring his novels and banning his name have been Beijing''s cynical response to Ma''s artistry, and to the human lives that the novelist cannot forget, even as the Chinese Dream envelops them." --Madeleine Thien, The Guardian "Mr. Ma''s critique of the totalitarian mindset recalls that of Soviet-era dissidents . . . tragic and elegiac . . . garnished with both horror and tenderness." -- The Economist "Ma surreally collapses past and present, undoing Xi''s work with every ironic reversal and juxtaposition." --Boris Kachka, Vulture , 1 of 8 New Books You Should Read This Month "A bold, searing indictment of present-day China and a lyrical expos of the false utopia created by the Communist Party and its current leader-for-life, Xi Jinping . . . [ China Dream ] is an inventive yet powerful confrontation of China''s past and present." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) "[A] deeply felt satire . . . Perhaps most absurd, Ma Jian seems to suggest, is the government''s attempts to bury a past filled with so many skeletons. There will always be people like Ma Daode who remember even what they''d rather forget." --Hank Stephenson, Shelf Awareness "Ma ( The Dark Road , 2013) has forged an impressive literary career by criticizing the government of the country of his birth, from which his work has been banned for 25 years. His latest novel presents his sharpest and most intimate vision yet, one that delves into the everyday lives of the wealthy elite . . . In his startling and irreverent parody, Ma finds compassion amid the sex and violence that shape a history of injustice and a nation''s vulnerability." -- Booklist (starred review) "A masterwork of political satire, meaningful without heavy-handedness." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "A chilling dystopian novel, China Dream will leave you breathless and shaken. Ma Jian''s brilliance is astounding and reverberates with a sort of cryptic, jaded humor throughout the book with an almost physical insistence." --Kelsey Chen, The Harvard Crimson "A short, highly satirical work no less excoriating than any of Ma''s previous fiction, translated in a graphic, stylish manner by [Flora] Drew, [the author''s wife and longtime translator]." -- The Financial Times "Wrenching . . . makes President Xi''s vision of national prosperity look like a recipe for insanity." --Simon Willis, 1843 "[Ma Jian] is one of the most respected and discussed of all contemporary Chinese authors . . . His devastating wit and experimental style are used to deconstruct both the history and the political reality of everyday life in China." -- World Literature Today " China Dream is a magnificent work in its unerring take on China, Ma Jian giving voice to the ghosts and memories of a silenced nation." --Mike Cormack, South China Morning Post Magazine "It''s a wonderfully well-paced, absorbing, darkly satirical and even funny at times." -- UK Press Syndication "A scathing satire of the absurd reality facing a silenced nation" -- South China Morning Post " China Dream ''s strengths lie in its description of the horrors of the Cultural Revolution--Ma Jian has a Proustian sensibility with the brutal eye of Isaac Babel." --Nishant Batsha, Ploughshares "With brutal and delicious irony, China Dream deconstructs the falsity of national pride build on sanitized, idealized visions of the past, contrasting dreams of a golden, utopian China with the gruesome reality of history . . . It''s ruthless and sometimes horrifying satire of the danger posed by a government that believes it owns history, and a cautionary tale to any who would think to ignore such painful truths. It''s a book for today, and a book for the world." --Sam Reader, The B&N Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog "A master of inimitable humour. Always hilarious, thought-provoking, and immensely moving." --Jung Chang, author of Wild Swans and Empress Dowager Cixi "In a not-too-unfamiliar dystopic China, Ma Daode is appointed head of the China Dream Bureau, a government agency that erases civilians'' dreams and replaces them with the president''s authoritarian propaganda for a better China. In a series of dream sequences, Ma Daode plans an epic golden wedding anniversary for him and his wife but is simultaneously plagued by his own violent and tragic memories of the Cultural Revolution. As Ma Daode''s past bubbles to the surface, threatening his inner peace and adherence to the president''s dream of China''s ''rejuvenation,'' Ma Jian crafts a hauntingly frantic but poignant narrative about retribution and reconciliation. As he comes to realize that the only way to be at peace in his mind is to erase these memories once and for all, Ma Daode''s confrontation with his country''s history serves as a painful but necessary exploration of the effects of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes. Ma Jian''s prose, banned in China, is unflinching and razor-sharp, combining political critique with a gripping narrative that will leave you devouring the final pages." --Morgan McComb, The Raven Book Store (Lawrence, KS) "As horrifying and unbelievable as this short novel was, the impact was profound. Ma Jian''s satirical but real analysis of the upper echelons of the Chinese Communist wealthy and the undeniable need for the human spirit to be granted freedom are loud and deep." --Lauren Nopenz Fairley, Curious Iguana (Frederick, MD) Praise for The Dark Road "In The Dark Road , as in Beijing Coma , Mr. Ma is adept at jolting our senses, transporting us, with a few words about a pain, a taste or an odor, to those parts of China, and millions of people, who exist on the far fringes of the economic miracle. "-- The New York Times "Unflinching and luridly revealing." -- The New Yorker "As powerful a China novel as any I''ve read." --Stephen Mosher, The Washington Times "The Dark Road is arguably one of the most painfully gritty and important books of the year." -- Bustle "Deeply compelling." -- Bookforum Praise for Beijing Coma "An extraordinarily effective novel . . . for all its savagery, it is one of the most optimistic novels I''ve encountered in a long time." --Jess Row, The New York Times Book Review "[A] masterful new novel . . . Ma Jian offers the Chinese people an avenue through which to retrieve their souls." --Belle Yang, The Washington Post "There are passages of extraordinary power, which, in chronicling the horrors perpetrated by the Chinese government in the Mao era and after, belong in the pantheon of dissident literature." --Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times "Evocative . . . Part of what gives [ Beijing Coma ] its highly energized, manic edge is the fierceness of Ma Jian''s conviction that it might be possible for a work of literature to function as a lifeline to cast out into the world." --Francine Prose, The New York Review of Books "So remarkable is it that we should suddenly receive this gift, an account of Tiananmen as breathless as John Reeds'' gee-whiz account of the Russian Revolution, Ten Days that Shook the World , I''ve almost neglected to mention

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