Meili, a young peasant woman born in the remote heart of China, is married to Kongzi, a village school teacher, and a distant descendant of Confucius. They have a daughter, but desperate for a son to carry on his illustrious family line, Kongzi gets Meili pregnant again without waiting for official permission. When family planning officers storm the village to arrest violators of the population control policy, mother, father and daughter escape to the Yangtze River and begin a fugitive life.
For years they drift south through the poisoned waterways and ruined landscapes of China, picking up work as they go along, scavenging for necessities and flying from police detection. As Meili's body continues to be invaded by her husband and assaulted by the state, she fights to regain control of her fate and that of her unborn child.
From Bookforum
The word rebel is bandied around fairly lightly in literary circles, but Ma qualifies. He has been in open confrontation with the Chinese establishment since well before the suppression of his first short-story collection in 1987. Ma's critics have long complained that his unremittingly negative view of China lacks nuance, and The Dark Road will do little to change their minds. At times the prose becomes strained as it traces the political causes of the social and environmental disasters it depicts. At others one hears the lonely voice of the political exile, who needs to shout to be heard over the enforced silence. The Dark Road is immoderate, excessive, strident. It is also deeply compelling, and in passages of extraordinary descriptive prose, it achieves a kind of sickening beauty. As China rolls on into its triumphant future as a great power, this angry novel will haunt it, a narrative ghost at its cruel feast. --Hari Kunzru
Review
"[Ma Jian's] characterization is superb. A devastating critique of China's oppressive communist regime" Mail on Sunday "Unforgettable" -- Stephen Abell Sunday Telegraph "Ma's work is a vital corrective and he writes here with insistent, focused anger" -- Siobhan Murphy Metro "All of Ma's skill and playfulness are on display as the novel builds to a climax" -- Tash Aw Guardian "A compellingly dark novel" -- Keith Bruce Glasgow Sunday Herald