The Fat Years: The international sensation: A Chinese 1984

(Paperback)

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Banned in China, a Chinese 1984 that holds controversial secrets about both the leaders and the people 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.

Reviews

A fascinating tale of China just over the horizon * The New Yorker *
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 * Observer *
A not-so-veiled satire of the Chinese government's tendency to make dates such as the Tiananmen massacre virtually disappear * Financial Times *
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

Author Bio

Chan Koonchung was born in Shanghai and raised in Hong Kong. His first novel, the dystopian THE FAT YEARS ('An all-encompassing metaphor for today's looming superpower' Observer) was highly acclaimed and published in thirteen territories. Chan Koonchung lives in Beijing.