Wang Shuo was born in Nanjing in 1958 and moved with his family to Beijing a year later. After his parents were sent to the countryside during Mao's Cultural Revolution, he and his brother, a pair of protected military brats, had the run of Beijing. It proved to be a good training for Wang's adolescent years, when he skipped school, was involved in petty crimes, street fights, and girl chasing, even landing in jail on at least one occasion. Forced into the navy by his father, he apparently honed his skills as a grifter, living by his wits until, in 1984, he published a story entitled Stewardess which launched his extraordinary career as a writer. By the late 1980's he was easily the most popular novelist among China's urban youth, with over 20 novels and 10 million copies in print, the most frequent target of official vilification. In 1991, he stopped writing books (he's back at it these days) and turned to writing for TV and the movies. Five years later at the height of China's spiritual civilization campaign, his four-volume collected works were pulled from the shelves and two film adaptations of his work were scrapped. His work is now banned in China. It's too early to tell whether this unwelcome attention has slowed down or accelerated his quest to become 'famous 'til I'm dizzy, without worrying about the consequences'.He now lives in Los Angeles. Playing for Thrills was his first novel to be made available in the West and was followed by Please Don't Call Me Human, also published by No Exit Press.

Find out more