The Noodle Maker

Written in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square massacre, this novel is a virtuoso piece of red humour about the absurdities and cruelties of life in modern China. A father desperate for a son abandons his retarded daughter; an illegal migrant scrapes a living by writing love letters, but can't help falling in love himself; a heartbroken actress performs her own suicide in front of a packed audience, a young entrepreneur uses an old pottery kiln to set up a private crematorium and is overwhelmed by demand