News From Nowhere Radical & Community Bookshop
not-for-profit - a workers'co-op - committed to social justice | 96 Bold Street, Liverpool L1 4HY - 0151 708 7270
Beijing Coma
by Ma Jian - £9.99 Vintage (2009)
paperback
ISBN 13: 9780099481348 | ISBN 10: 0099481340
Dai Wei is a medical student and a pro-democracy protestor in Tiananmen Square in June 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 and his left kidney to fund special treatment from Master Yao, a member of the outlawed Falun Gong sect. But during a government crackdown, the Master is arrested and Dai Wei’s mother – who has fallen in love with him – loses her mind.
The millennium draws near and Dai Wei has been in a coma for almost a decade. A sparrow flies through the window and lands on his naked chest; it is a sign that Dai Wei must emerge from his dry cocoon. But China has also undergone a massive transformation in the time that he has been absent. As he prepares to take leave of his old metal bed, Dai Wei realises that the rich imaginative world afforded to him as a coma patient is a startling contrast with the death-in-life of the world outside.
"This is an epic yet intimate work that deserves to be recognised and to endure as the great Tiananmen novel … a magnificent book brim-full of humanity, insight and humour … beautifully translated by Flora Drew."
(Financial Times )
(Price & availability last checked: October 2018)
© News From Nowhere Co-operative Ltd IP24524R 2004-2024 | Privacy policy | Contact | return to top of page