'In his unforgettable first novel, Su Tong writes about pre-war China and the unspoken brutality of a family that is devouring itself THE SUNDAY TIMES

'Su Tong's evocation of one family's destiny in 1930s' China is stark and vivid in the extreme. A chilling and macabre tale, characteristically told with imagination and unflinching honesty' TIME OUT

When Five Dragons, a poor country boy, chances his fortune in the city, his brutal humiliation at the hands of a gang of wharf rats hones his purpose to a knife-edge. His desire for power and women is insatiable and when he marries Cloud Weave, the disgraced beautiful daughter of a wealthy rice emporium owner, and inherits the business, fulfilment beckons. But men tire easily of their playthings, particularly in this wayward family, and Cloud Weave is too headstrong to be bound by the shackles of her sex...