The Barter Trade

A Novel

By: Chris Ruffle

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Paperback | 9 July 2024

At a Glance

Paperback
124 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
21.59 x 13.97 x 0.79

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$45.99

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It is 1983 and we are in Beijing. China has just started to re-open to Western trade after the chaos of the Cultural Revolution. A young Englishman finds himself caught in a dilemma: will his desire for a Chinese girl make him willing to source forbidden technology for her father? And will their relationship be used to lure him into espionage? In this part-love story, part-thriller, Chris Ruffle reveals a China now vanished beneath the veneer of modernization.

Industry Reviews

"The Barter Trade is riveting in its blending of a vivid picture of 1980s China with intriguing John Le Carre-like machinations and entertainingly mismatched cultural expectations - the whole brought to life beautifully by the author's own photographs and souvenirs of that time. This is a fascinating and frequently very funny must-read." - Cindy Gallop, Founder/CEO of MakeLoveNotPorn

"I just read The Barter Trade and it's utterly charming. The photographs and excerpts from letters home are a nice touch, the prose is descriptive and evocative." - Lara Marlowe, Irish Times

"A characteristically idiosyncratic novel. I've enjoyed it very much. Above all, the wry, droll humour on almost every page is delightful." - Ross Leckie, author of the Hannibal trilogy

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