Every week, a writer of political propaganda and a professional blood donor meet for dinner. They are unlikely friends - one of them tortured by his 'art', the other fat and wealthy from the earthy business of providing spare blood for the citizens of China.

Over the course of one especially gastronomic evening, the writer starts to complain about his latest Party commission: the story of an ordinary soldier who sacrifices his life to the revolutionary cause. This is not the novel he wants to write, he tells his friend. Inside his head lives an unwritten book about the people he knows or sees everyday on the streets - people who lives are far more representative of the world in which he lives...

Off to the winner of the Supernatural Sweepstakes. Enjoy!

A surprising title for the supernatural sweeps since the description doesn't mention anything magical or extraordinary, but I'm intrigued and always enjoy the invitation to travel to another place. I especially love books about places I'd like to travel someday, and China is definitely one of them! So thanks, and I'm looking forward to reading this.

Hmmm, I found the style of this very dry. It was a bit difficult to enter the lives of these characters to understand or sympathize with them. I just couldn't relate or keep up my interest easily. The bits about the writer and the blood donor were the most interesting.

Putting in the "Around the World" bookbox representing Asia / China.

Received in the Around-the-World Bookbox. Thanks! Advertised as a "Chinese Kundera," and I love Kundera (and have tried to read Kundera in the original Czech).