{"product_id":"the-noodle-maker-9780312424794","title":"The Noodle Maker","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrom Mi Jian, the highly acclaimed Chinese dissident, comes a satirical novel about the absurdities of life in a post-Tiananmen China. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTwo men meet for dinner each week. Over the course of one of these drunken evenings, the writer recounts the stories he would write, had he the courage: a young man buys an old kiln and opens a private crematorium, delighting in his ability to harass the corpses of police officers and Party secretaries, while swooning to banned Western music; a heartbroken actress performs a public suicide by stepping into the jaws of a wild tiger, watched nonchalantly by her ex-lover. Extraordinary characters inspire him, their lives pulled and pummeled by fate and politics, as if they are balls of dough in the hands of an all-powerful noodle maker. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMa Jian's satirical masterpiece allows us a humorous, yet profound, glimpse of those struggling to survive under a system that dictates their every move.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eMa Jian\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of \u003ci\u003eRed Dust, \u003c\/i\u003e which won the Thomas Cook Prize in the UK. His most recent novel is \u003ci\u003eStick Out Your Tongue\u003c\/i\u003e (FSG). He now lives in England.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Picador USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50319264710930,"sku":"9780312424794","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_be962533-be9e-4593-9917-b9171552f11d.jpg?v=1727566552","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-noodle-maker-9780312424794","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}