In Bookstores: Chinese Whiskers

   Chinese Whiskers is a modern fable set in the chaotic and ever-changing landscape of contemporary Beijing. 

   Soyabean is a middle class cat looked after by a cynical but kind grandmother who embodies  traditional Chinese morality. Tofu is a dustbin cat, born to a stray cat mother in a dustbin in the backyard of a disgraced university professor.

    They are brought together when they are adopted by waiguoren or foreigners who live in a traditional style courtyard in Beijing’s hutongs. Their idlyllic life as pampered pets is interupted when Soyabean is offered a job as a model for a new brand of cat food. At the same time a mysterious virus is sickening people across the city and it is cats that are being blamed.

   Chinese Whiskers is a window to the rhythm and texture of life in the hutong neighbourhoods of imperial Beijing. Interweaving real episodes in recent Chinese history such as the Olympic Games, SARS virus and tainted pet-food scandals with a richly imagined world, this heartwarming story of cats and humans will make you laugh and tear up, and think again about the battles that we all fight between the corruption of modern living and the ideals of traditional life.

Cover of the U.S edition, St Martin's Press