Playing for Thrills

Still by far the most popular writer in China even after all his work has been officially banned as reactionary and vulgar, Wang Shuo is famous for his cynical wit, his raw descriptions of sex, and his casual depiction of Chinese drifters, wiseguys, and hooligans. Now, for the first time, comes the publication of one of his novels in English. Playing for Thrills will introduce readers around the world to the writer Newsweek calls "China's literary bad boy" and The Washington Post acclaims as "the irreverent voice of a disillusioned generation."

A tripped-out, sarcastic novel of urban alienation, Playing for Thrills follows the investigation of a mysterious murder of a possibly imaginary character that took place more than ten years before. The chief suspect is the narrator of the novel who may or may not have committed the crime--even he isn't sure. As our charismatic antihero careens around Beijing drinking beer, having sex, and questioning a bunch of people who speak like characters in a gangster movie, he tries to find someone who can remind him which girl he was with and what he was doing at the time of the murder. Suddenly, the narrative explodes, and the reader is thrust into a countdown leading up to the crime itself. The result is a sometimes frightening, sometimes hilarious, always astonishing novel that is totally unlike anything ever published from China.