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The Fat Years

The international sensation: A Chinese 1984

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About this listen

TRUTH IS NOT AN OPTION....
Beijing, sometime in the near future: a month has gone missing from official records. No one has any memory of it, and no one can care less. Except for a small circle of friends, who will stop at nothing to get to the bottom of the sinister cheerfulness and amnesia that has possessed the Chinese nation. When they kidnap a high-ranking official and force him to reveal all, what they learn - not only about their leaders, but also about their own people - stuns them to the core. It is a message that will rock the world...
Terrifying methods of cunning, deception and terror are unveiled by the truth-seekers in this thriller-expose of the Communist Party's stranglehold on China today.

 Contemporary Fiction Dystopian Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Political Science Fiction Fiction China Socialism

Critic reviews

A fascinating tale of China just over the horizon
A thought-provoking novel about China's tomorrow, which reveals the truth about China today (Xinran, author of The Good Women of China)
The Fat Years remains valid because it is not simply a "what might happen" exercise in futurism. Its central conceit - that collective amnesia overtakes the entire country - is an all-encompassing metaphor for today's looming superpower... a triumph
A not-so-veiled satire of the Chinese government's tendency to make dates such as the Tiananmen massacre virtually disappear
Chan Koonchung's humorous tale reveals the distorted reality of China, where despite the supersonic development of its economy, political life is steadfastly unchanging (Ma Jian)
Anyone who wants to understand modern China should read this novel (Allan Massie)
Bracing, smart and entertaining
The hottest novel to come out of China this year
An inventive and highly topical novel by Chan Koonchung, is among the first to explore a scenario that much of the world is speculating about today
Chan’s story is not only absorbing in its own right, it also shines reflected light on the foibles of the West
All stars
Most relevant
I wonder how much is lost in translation and how differently a Chinese reader would experience the book to me as a westerner.

heavy going but an interesting read

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