The City Party Secretary Vanished on His First Day in Office

With official corruption, a deeply sensitive subject of widespread concern, as its central theme, this book follows Guan Yeping, the newly appointed municipal party secretary, as he turns down the grand welcoming ceremony and escort offered by provincial leaders and travels alone, traveling light. Through Guan Yeping’s observations of the corruption permeating every level of Yinan County, particularly a series of vivid, dramatic scenes both in public and behind the scenes, the novel brings to life a cast of officials of every rank who operate at the heart of power or on its fringes. It offers a penetrating portrayal of their political games and greed, while exploring from the perspectives of both human nature and the system the ugliness of officialdom and the roots of its corruption. The story is lively and full of twists. Even Wang Dengsheng, secretary of the Yinan County Party Committee, never imagined that he and municipal party secretary Guan Yeping were brothers who had been separated for 37 years. Wang’s wife had also been Guan’s college sweetheart, while Lan Xiaoping, the newly appointed acting county party secretary, was having an affair with Wang’s wife... Written with fluid prose, subtle characterization, and careful storytelling, the novel offers both an immediate sense of reality and a penetrating view behind the scenes. It is a rare and thought-provoking work.