Meili, a young peasant woman born in the remote heart of China, is married to Kongzi, a village school teacher, and a distant descendant of Confucius. They have a daughter, but desperate for a son to carry on his illustrious family line, Kongzi gets Meili pregnant again without waiting for official permission. When family planning officers storm the village to arrest violators of the population control policy, mother, father and daughter escape to the Yangtze River and begin a fugitive life.

For years they drift south through the poisoned waterways and ruined landscapes of China, picking up work as they go along, scavenging for necessities and flying from police detection. As Meilis body continues to be invaded by her husband and assaulted by the state, she fights to regain control of her fate and that of her unborn child.

Ma Jian was born in Qingdao, China in 1953. He is the author ofStick out Your Tongue, which in 1987 led to the permanent banning of his books in China;Red Dust, winner of the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award; four collections of short stories and essays, and eight novels, includingBeijing Comawhich was described as the definitive Tiananmen Square novel and a true landmark work of fiction (Boyd Tonkin,Independent). His last novel,The Dark Road, saw him permanently banned from returning to China. He has won the Index on Censorship Book Award and the Athens Prize for Literature, and has been translated into twenty languages. He now lives in exile in London.

From the author of Beijing Coma, a compelling and shocking novel about the dark heart of China's One Child Policy.

Longlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2014.

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