It was longlisted for the 2011 MAN Asian Literary Prize and shortlisted for the 2011 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. This is quite an eye-opening, confronting and gruelling read, and definitely not one for the faint-hearted. It also reveals much about the modern Chinese value system in which everything - including blood - has been commodified in order to make profit. This book, which is narrated by the ghost of a dead boy, reminded me of Ma Jian’s rather brilliant Beijing Coma, especially in its depiction of a crude and corrupt health care system in which access is dependent not on need but on the ability to pay. Sadly, they reuse needles and other equipment, and thereby contaminate donors so that, before too long, an entire village is suffering from “the fever”. These banks, which are run by blood merchants, pay poor peasants meagre sums for any blood they donate. It is set in a village in rural China devastated by the AIDS virus, which has been spread by the unfettered and wholly unregulated business of blood banks.

Nevertheless, it’s an important story - and one that needs to be told if we are to learn anything about the value of our health, prevention of disease and the importance of proper regulated medical care.

I read Yan Lianke’s Dream of Ding Village while lying by a pool on the Greek island of Rhodes and I have to say this did not make for a good holiday read - it was far too grim and oppressive to truly enjoy while soaking up the sunshine. Translated from the Chinese by Cindy Carter. Fiction – Kindle edition Corsair 352 pages 2011.

Ding village