Description
Book SynopsisThis harrowing and extraordinary story, based on a true event, is part of a series of tales illuminating the microcosm of all humanity contained in a typical Chinese “worker village.” Here, an exploited young factory worker has nothing to live for beyond a frail chance of a pay raise. When it never happens, he feels trapped between his family and official greed, indifference, and corruption. He then loses a ten-yuan note in a grain shop and turns desperately manic. While burgling the home of his sister, he is caught and accused by his little niece. Horrorstruck, he performs the action that will seal his fate forever . . .
Trade Review"Only the Cat Knows is a crushing depiction of everyday life in Mao-era China. It teaches us of a world many of us have not had to live through and provides insight into modern China."—Audrey Fong, Soapberry Review
"Meng skillfully depicts the narrator’s unraveling through his paranoia about [a] cat [that witnesses his crime]. The book takes on an Edgar Allan Poe-like quality with its darkness and desperation..."
—Susan Blumberg-Kason,
Asian Review of Books
