Red Dust

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 *
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 *
It opens windows on landscapes small and vast, all still largely unobserved and unknown to Westerners * Observer *
Honest, raw, insightful... The Chinese equivalent of On the Road * Time *
[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 *
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 *
An unflinching account of a three-year journey by an insider who feels like an outsider in his native China -- Chris Moss * Sunday Telegraph *
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 *