Red Dust

An unflinching account of a three-year journey by an insider who feels like an outsider in his native China

Chris Moss, Sunday Telegraph

Red Dust is a tour de force, a powerfully picaresque cross between the sort of travel book any Western author would give his eye-teeth to write, and a disturbing confession

Independent

Enthralling... He depicts a land of extraordinary physical beauty and interest and his prose is always elegant. Read this book for its human truthfulness and for unforgettable moments

Daily Telegraph

Honest, raw, insightful... The Chinese equivalent of On the Road

Time

His narrative is blessed with a prose style that compresses meaning as succinctly as Chinese calligraphy

The Times

Like a Chinese Jack Kerouac...his book is a riveting record of how he tried to make sense of his new experiences

Sunday Times

It opens windows on landscapes small and vast, all still largely unobserved and unknown to Westerners

Observer

[Ma's] powers of description make every page buzz with life... Someone who could rank among the great travel writers

New York Times Book Review

A Sino-beatnik travelogue, [and] a fascinating search for self

Mother Jones

Ma captures the feel of wandering off China's beaten track, which is to say most of the country, far from the tour buses and souvenir stands

Los Angeles Times

A rare peep at everyday life behind the Chinese iron curtain

Noo Saro- Wiwa, Geographical