The Invisibility Cloak

Ge Fei

Short novel set in contemporary China, ostensibly about love and high-end audio equipment. Really about a country grappling with mass hyper-urbanization, corruption, and huge wealth disparities. It plays out at first as a sort of surreal comedy, but quickly (the whole book is less than 200 pages) into a dark spiral of betrayal and loss.

I’m not much for the sardonic novel, but this one quickly takes its tongue out of its cheek and plunges into the tragically comedic, and then just the tragic. I know little about modern China, and can’t really say whether this is an accurate portrayal of the country or not, but I can say its captivating, and creates a surreal, yet resonate sense of place. Glad I took the risk.

Recommended.