num_pages: 384
description: Meili a young peasant woman born in the remote heart of China is married to Kongzi a village school teacher and a distant descendant of Confucius. They have a daughter but desperate for a son to carry on his illustrious family line Kongzi gets Meili pregnant again without waiting for official permission. When family planning officers storm the village to arrest violators of the population control policy mother father and daughter escape to the Yangtze River and begin a fugitive life.For years they drift south through the poisoned waterways and ruined landscapes of China picking up work as they go along scavenging for necessities and flying from police detection. As Meili's body continues to be invaded by her husband and assaulted by the state she fights to regain control of her fate and that of her unborn child.
language: English
title: The Dark Road
publisher: Penguin Press HC