Beijing Coma
Knopf Canada is proud to welcome to the list one of the world’s most significant living writers. Spiked with dark wit, poetic beauty and deep rage, Beijing Coma is the epic new novel from prize-winning author Ma Jian. It is his masterpiece.
“One of the most important and courageous voices in Chinese literature.” Gao Xingjian, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
Dai Wei is a medical student and a pro-democracy protestor in Tiananmen Square in June of 1989. Caught by a soldier’s bullet, he falls into a deep coma; as soon as the hospital authorities discover he is an activist, his mother is forced to take him home. She allows pharmacists access to Dai Wei’s body and sells his urine…
Ma Jian was born in Qingdao, China, in 1953. After working as a photojournalist for a state-run magazine, he left China for Hong Kong in 1987 but continued to return to China, notably to support the pro-democracy activist in Tiananmen Square in 1989. He is the author of Red Dust, winner of the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award; The Noodle Maker, a novel; and Stick Out Your Tongue, stories about Tibet that prompted the Chinese government to ban Ma Jian’s work, and that set him on the road to exile. He now lives in London.
China Dream
Ma Jian
The Dark Road
Ma Jian; Translated by Flora Drew