Description: "In conjuring China's very near future, Chan Koonchung has given us a bracingly honest portrait of the present. He captures all the flamboyant paradoxes of daily life in China on the cusp of empire, but is also awake to its submerged anxieties. His writing is steeped in humor and fantasy, but his project could not be more serious: The struggle over the soul of a nation." -Evan Osnos, Staff Writer, The New Yorker "What happens when 1.3 billion Chinese are all very happy? The Fat Years is suspenseful, hilarious, intelligent, and dark - a powerful novel. Anyone interested in learning about the current state and future of China should read this novel." -Shu-mei Shih, University of California, Los Angeles "It's no wonder that the insecure Chinese authorities have banned this book in China itself. It tells stunning truths that those authorities strive hard to keep under the rug, and it tells them with a literary flair worthy of Orwell. Chan Koonchung's novel is deeply disturbing, biting, weirdly funny, and, above, all, piercingly honest." -Richard Bernstein, author of The Coming Conflict with China "A thought-provoking novel about China's tomorrow, that reveals the truth about China today." -Xinran, author of The Good Women of China "With echoes of Kafka, Lu Xun and Orwell, The Fat Years limns a New China that few have imagined: a booming, post-revolutionary land where historical and political amnesia are rewarded by the right to wealth and a seductive but amputated 'good life.' More unsettling, Chan's novel suggests that the 'China's model' of high-speed growth may mean that, far from heading towards greater openness and democracy as we have long imagined, history may actually be headed towards a new kind of Leninist consumerism." -Orville Schell, Director of the Center on US-China Relations at the Asia Society "Rarely does a novel tell the truth about a society in a way that has the power to shift our perceptions about that place in a fundamental way, but Chan Koonchung's The Fat Years does exactly that. A dystopic political fantasy, it provides a frighteningly accurate portrayal of a rising world superpower where few things are as they seem, and where critics who persist in speaking truth to power are 'harmonized' in the name of social stability and maintenance of Communist Party control. If you read only one book about China this year, make it this one - it tells you more about China than any work of non-fiction." -Didi Kirsten Tatlow, China Columnist, International Herald Tribune and New York Times "This dystopia masterfully captures the dilemma today's Chinese face: embrace economic growth or fight for justice. Chan delves into Beijing's conscience and does not like what he sees." -Isaac Stone Fish, Reporter, Newsweek/Daily Beast "Chan's compelling dystopian fantasy reveals the underbelly of today's Rising China while holding up a challenging mirror to fellow Chinese and all thoughtful readers." -Timothy Cheek, University of British Columbia, author of Living with Reform: China Since 1989 "A fascinating tale of China just over the horizon." - The New Yorker "Bracing, smart and entertaining." - Independent "Hardly a thriller in the conventional sense of the word but a lot more scary than most." - The Times

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