CAT COUNTRY

Fascinating . . . a work fuelled by specifically Chinese concerns (the leaves function in Martian history much as opium did in China''s) and shaped by China''s literary past (the Chinese canon includes tales of travelers to distant lands encountering curious customs and marvelous sights), yet written by a worldly author fond of Conrad and Swift . . . makes an ideal companion piece to George Orwell''s Nineteen Eighty-Four . . . in Cat Country, the greatest fear is of a culture and people being annihilated as a government too divided and weak to stand up for itself proves unable to protect a land from brutal invaders (Jeffrey Wasserstrom The Times Literary Supplement) A biting satire (Jasper Becker)