{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20261010T034321Z-reviewed-full-unique-works","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0385720238?tag=bookfrontie00-20","asin":"0385720238","authors":["Ma Jian"],"book_id":"9780385720236","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/red-dust-9780385720236","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780385720236.jpg?v=e72174cb94ef5201","description":"In 1983, at the age of thirty, dissident artist Ma Jian finds himself divorced by his wife, separated from his daughter, betrayed by his girlfriend, facing arrest for “Spiritual Pollution,” and severely disillusioned with the confines of life in Beijing. So with little more than a change of clothes and two bars of soap, Ma takes off to immerse himself in the remotest parts of China. His journey would last three years and take him through smog-choked cities and mountain villages, from scenes of barbarity to havens of tranquility. Remarkably written and subtly moving, the result is an insight into the teeming contradictions of China that only a man who was both insider and outsider in his own country could have written.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780385720236","publication_date":"20021112","publisher":"Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group","slug":"red-dust","subtitle":"A Path Through China","title":"Red Dust"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"TRV003020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"China Travel","score":0.7815,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LCO004010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Chinese Literary Collections","score":0.7678,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"TRV003010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Central Asia Travel","score":0.7604,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"TRV003020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"China Travel","score":0.7815,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LCO004010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Chinese Literary Collections","score":0.7678,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"TRV003010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Central Asia Travel","score":0.7604,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"HIS008000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Chinese History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"TRV003020","confidence_band":"high","label":"China Travel","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"TRV010000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Travel Writing","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"China Travel","score":0.7815,"slug":"china-travel"},{"label":"Chinese Literary Collections","score":0.7678,"slug":"chinese-literary-collections"},{"label":"Central Asia Travel","score":0.7604,"slug":"central-asia-travel"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers interested in journeys through remote parts of China","Good for readers interested in China's social contradictions"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Graham Earnshaw"],"book_id":"9789881900210","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9789881900210.jpg?v=5c7a56444153ac89","score":0.7443,"title":"The Great Walk of China","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9789881900210"},{"authors":["J. Maarten Troost"],"book_id":"9780767922012","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780767922012.jpg?v=d49b97a79b4aba11","score":0.736,"title":"Lost on Planet China","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780767922012"},{"authors":["Tim Clissold"],"book_id":"9780060761400","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780060761400.jpg?v=4c778cdfaadc332c","score":0.7265,"title":"Mr. China","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780060761400"},{"authors":["Yunte Huang"],"book_id":"9780393353808","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780393353808.jpg?v=d5e4581107d05fca","score":0.7219,"title":"The Big Red Book of Modern Chinese Literature","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780393353808"},{"authors":["Lianke Yan"],"book_id":"9781478030393","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781478030393.jpg?v=21ff8c5c7f2a92ba","score":0.7087,"title":"Sound and Silence","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781478030393"},{"authors":["Richard Bernstein"],"book_id":"9780679781578","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780679781578.jpg?v=566d0f99033889fe","score":0.7075,"title":"Ultimate Journey","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780679781578"},{"authors":["William Dalrymple"],"book_id":"9780307948885","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780307948885.jpg?v=3af0981938f4c1c6","score":0.7074,"title":"In Xanadu","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780307948885"},{"authors":["Bernard Ollivier"],"book_id":"9781510746909","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781510746909.jpg?v=9eeccc610bed1d0d","score":0.7074,"title":"Winds of the Steppe","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781510746909"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["keyword:travel writing"],"label":"Travel","score":0.0878,"slug":"travel"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:biography"],"label":"Biography","score":0.0744,"slug":"biography"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:biographies"],"label":"Biographies","score":0.0616,"slug":"biographies"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:travel writing"],"label":"Writing","score":0.051,"slug":"writing"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: Travel through China, Political repression, Disillusionment with life in Beijing.","Themes: Travel, Biography, Biographies.","Reading lane: China Travel and Chinese Literary Collections."]},"llm_signals":{"confidence":0.87,"pacing":"unknown","reader_fit":["Readers interested in journeys through remote parts of China","Readers interested in China's social contradictions"],"themes":["Travel through China","Political repression","Disillusionment with life in Beijing"],"tropes":[]},"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":true,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":58,"goodreads_ratings_count":2348,"goodreads_reviews_count":208,"quality_score":0.9343}}