A veritable tome of political witness.

Red Dust documents Ma Jian's extraordinary three-year journey across China following the Tiananmen Square massacre. Travelling through remote provinces, deserts, monasteries, industrial cities and forgotten villages, Ma records lives that sat well beyond the reach of official narratives, creating an intimate portrait of a country in the midst of profound social and economic transformation.

What makes Red Dust remarkable is its refusal of the grand historical overview. Instead, history emerges through conversations with migrant workers, monks, artists, officials, farmers and drifters, revealing the contradictions between ideology and everyday life. Banned in China and now regarded as one of the defining works of contemporary Chinese literature in translation, it remains an essential account of modern China from one of its most uncompromising writers.

Pantheon Books hardcover, first American edition, first printing (2001), translated by Flora Drew. Complete with dust jacket. Very good condition with light shelf wear to the jacket and boards. Binding is firm and the pages are clean throughout.