- Hardcover: 384 pages
- Publisher: Scribner; 1 edition (Dec 9 2008)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1416593535
- ISBN-13: 978-1416593539
- Product Dimensions: 21.3 x 15.4 x 3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 481 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #924,641 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
“An outstanding thriller debut. . . . Bad Traffic is a rabbit-hole that a reader is literally sucked into, its fast pace and staccato style a preliminary enticement to deeper insights into the changing nature of Chinese mores.”—Sarah Weinman, Los Angeles Times
“An offbeat and delightful novel . . . Lewis’s narrative is fast-moving and flawless. . . . A number of exceptionally literate thrillers have arrived this year from abroad. . . . Bad Traffic ranks with the best of them. My advice is to get in on the ground floor.”—Washington Post
“Simon Lewis shows the plight of desperate refugees and the pure malice of those who exploit them without telling a story so depressing no one would want to visit it. Jam-packed with offbeat humor, [Bad Traffic] is a cultural odyssey in a shrinking world.”—Rocky Mountain News
“A rip-roaring action tale . . . Lewis doesn’t miss a beat.”—Oline Cogdill, South Florida Sun-Sentinel --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
“An offbeat and delightful novel . . . Lewis’s narrative is fast-moving and flawless. . . . A number of exceptionally literate thrillers have arrived this year from abroad. . . . Bad Traffic ranks with the best of them. My advice is to get in on the ground floor.”—Washington Post
“Simon Lewis shows the plight of desperate refugees and the pure malice of those who exploit them without telling a story so depressing no one would want to visit it. Jam-packed with offbeat humor, [Bad Traffic] is a cultural odyssey in a shrinking world.”—Rocky Mountain News
“A rip-roaring action tale . . . Lewis doesn’t miss a beat.”—Oline Cogdill, South Florida Sun-Sentinel --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Book Description
Inspector Jian is a Chinese cop from the Siberian borders who thinks he's seen it all. But his search for his missing daughter brings him to the meanest streets he's ever faced - in rural England. Migrant worker Ding Ming is distressed - his gangmaster's making demands, he owes a lot of money to the snakeheads and no one will tell him where his wife has been taken. Maybe England isn't the 'gold mountain' he was promised. Two desperate men, uneasy allies in a baffling foreign land, are pitted against a band of ruthless criminals. There's Bad Traffic ahead.
--This text refers to the
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.2 out of 5 stars (50 customer reviews)
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very interesting, July 23 2009
By Mel Odom - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Bad Traffic: A Novel (Hardcover)
Pre-release customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program
Inspector Jian is a very interesting character, but the whole language barrier at the beginning (although realistic) made it difficult to sink comfortably into the novel. I was very aware of reading, and how much effort I put into getting through the dense narrative. I missed having dialogue around a lot.But after the story got up and going, it was smooth sailing. I liked the action and the way. Jian is not the kind of hero I normally root for. Jian has a lot of flaws and even caused his wife's death. His efforts to save his daughter do a lot to redeem him.
Also interesting were the reveals about the Britich and Chinese cultures, especially in conflict with each other.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
fast paced thriller with an intersting point of view and plenty of twists, July 16 2009
By AZ Mutley - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Bad Traffic: A Novel (Hardcover)
Pre-release customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program
This crime/thriller had me tunning page after page once I started it.Partly due to the 3 or 4 page chapters, the non stop twists and action; and partly because it was so fascinating as well as entertaining.
Written from the POV of a Chinese Police officer who can't speak a word of English, searching for his daughter in England, you see the world in a way I suspect most of us have not. You also learn quite a few interesting things about life as lived in China.
My only gripe was the incredible number of beatings the guy took, and each time it seemed he was almost dead, but came back fighting.. a little unbelievable, but the rest was solid.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent novel about human trafficking, Mar 27 2009
By Matthew M. Sanchez - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Bad Traffic: A Novel (Hardcover)
Pre-release customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program
While it is certainly the case that one doesn't have to be a member of the ethnic/cultural/racial group that one is writing about to do a good job of writing about the particular group (Tony Hillerman's novels are, I think, a good example of this), I think it certainly helps. Granted we are talking about a work of fiction her, but really all works of fiction have an element of truth to them...at least the good ones do. Having said that the writer of this novel isn't Chinese (although it sounds like he has spent a lot of time immersed in Chinese culture), but his characters are and a lot of the novel is a description of the Chinese characters reactions to Western Society/Culture. This being the case, I was scratching my head throughout the novel wondering if this would indeed be their reactions and am I learning anything about the clash between East and West reading this novel. Granted, as I said before this is a work of fiction, nonetheless, I think it overall if detracted from the impact of the novel (I would expect this is a point that many would disagree with me on). Having said that, as far as mystery/thrillers/crime novels go, this was a good read. Oddly enough I found the most interesting character in the book not to be the protagonist Ma Jian, but Ding Ming. And while the Inspectors plight to find his daughter is certainly an agonizing one, I think it pails in comparison to that of Ding Ming's. Overall, I think that this is indeed where the novel really succeeds--i.e., in it's portrayal of the plight of illegal immigrants, be they Chinese of otherwise, and the truly awful circumstances they find themselves in search of a better life. The authors description of the human trafficking is a truly disturbing one; one which gives us a better understanding of the exploitation of illegal immigrants and the perhaps the role we all play in its existence. In that regard, I give the novel 5 stars.
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