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The Message
Cina, 1941. Al culmine del conflitto sino-giapponese, la Repubblica di Nanchino sostenuta da Tokyo rafforza la lotta clandestina contro la resistenza. Una notte, quattro agenti dell’intelligence – due uomini e due donne –al servizio del governo fantoccio di Wang Jingwei come crittografi vengono scortati nella celebre Tenuta Qiu ,due edifici isolati alle porte di Hangzhou. Sono stati convocati dal quartier generale dell’esercito imperiale perché tra loro si nasconde una spia. Nome in Fantasma. Jin, Wu, Li e Gu dovranno rimanere rinchiusi fino a quando il traditore non verrà smascherato.
Separare la verità dalle bugie, però, non è ognuna delle persone sospettate pone un limite a ciò che è disposta a rivelare, ognuna ha una storia da raccontare a sostegno della propria integrità. E ogni versione è in grado di rovesciare la precedente.
Chi è colpevole, dunque? Chi innocente? Nessuno sa a cosa credere, ma la verità, sempre che sia realmente tale, ha il suo prezzo.
Dopo aver lavorato a lungo nei servizi segreti cinesi, a fianco di agenti e criptoanalisti, Mai Jia trasferisce la sua profonda esperienza in una spy story ad alta tensione che, sullo sfondo di una delle grandi guerre della storia, assume il fascino di un rompicapo matematico.
Separare la verità dalle bugie, però, non è ognuna delle persone sospettate pone un limite a ciò che è disposta a rivelare, ognuna ha una storia da raccontare a sostegno della propria integrità. E ogni versione è in grado di rovesciare la precedente.
Chi è colpevole, dunque? Chi innocente? Nessuno sa a cosa credere, ma la verità, sempre che sia realmente tale, ha il suo prezzo.
Dopo aver lavorato a lungo nei servizi segreti cinesi, a fianco di agenti e criptoanalisti, Mai Jia trasferisce la sua profonda esperienza in una spy story ad alta tensione che, sullo sfondo di una delle grandi guerre della storia, assume il fascino di un rompicapo matematico.
480 pages, Hardcover
First published May 27, 2013
28 people are currently reading
318 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
February 12, 2025
In a broad sense, The Message can be considered a type of pseudo-detective novel. Its core is a mystery - who is the traitor - and the number of suspects is fixed: Wu, Jin, Li, and Gu. More importantly, the story's setting is confined to an old, closed mansion, which is clearly another continuation of the classic pattern in detective fiction known as the "locked-room mystery." We always find it hard to let go of this story setting because with few characters and a fixed scene, many troubles can be avoided. More importantly, such a setting gives people a sense of security - we don’t have to worry about the author playing tricks and bringing in a random passerby at the end of the story to be the traitor.
Mai Jia is a writer with a solid narrative foundation, and most of his stories are quite readable. But this doesn't mean he's an "honest" storyteller - he also works on the story structure, and the purpose of doing so is exactly opposite to the textual purpose of traditional detective fiction. This novel is divided into 3 parts, and each part is built on the "flaws" and "questions" of the previous part. As a result, we read 3 intersecting stories, and only at the end do people see the full picture of the story. Expressing a story in such a convoluted way also implicitly enhances the sense of reality.
But do you really think the ending of this story is the "true truth"?
Returning to the novel, the story is set during the War of Resistance Against Japan, and the Japanese are hunting for the spy. Therefore, a condition for the story to hold is that this "hunter" must be sufficiently paranoid. He must enjoy intellectual pleasure to go to great lengths to play the game of "catching the spy" when the suspects have already been identified. Otherwise, he could simply act according to the theory of - better to kill a thousand by mistake than to let one guilty person go. So, until the deadline arrived and the situation became unmanageable, he wanted to adopt a foolproof method but still failed to save the ruined situation.
He was too obsessed with intellectual perfection to fall into a predicament. But isn't this exactly us, the readers, are expecting?
Ironically, the revelation of the traitor comes from a departure from perfection. The character's ultimate success lies in embracing uncertainty rather than relying solely on intellect. This suggests that sometimes, abandoning the pursuit of perfection can lead to unexpected solutions. In this case, it allowed Mai Jia to craft a more compelling ending.
Objectively speaking, it is very bold to introduce real historical figures and facts in the concluding part of the work. But since this attempt is not Mai Jia’s forte, the final presentation somewhat dilutes the tension of the entire work. This may be the price he paid for his ambition, but it is also more like a kind of dilemma.
Like a thread in a maze, the identity of the traitor who spread the massage constantly shifted, tantalizing yet always out of grasp.
4.9 / 5 stars. (The Chinese version 风声 is more precise & interesting to read).
Mai Jia is a writer with a solid narrative foundation, and most of his stories are quite readable. But this doesn't mean he's an "honest" storyteller - he also works on the story structure, and the purpose of doing so is exactly opposite to the textual purpose of traditional detective fiction. This novel is divided into 3 parts, and each part is built on the "flaws" and "questions" of the previous part. As a result, we read 3 intersecting stories, and only at the end do people see the full picture of the story. Expressing a story in such a convoluted way also implicitly enhances the sense of reality.
But do you really think the ending of this story is the "true truth"?
Returning to the novel, the story is set during the War of Resistance Against Japan, and the Japanese are hunting for the spy. Therefore, a condition for the story to hold is that this "hunter" must be sufficiently paranoid. He must enjoy intellectual pleasure to go to great lengths to play the game of "catching the spy" when the suspects have already been identified. Otherwise, he could simply act according to the theory of - better to kill a thousand by mistake than to let one guilty person go. So, until the deadline arrived and the situation became unmanageable, he wanted to adopt a foolproof method but still failed to save the ruined situation.
He was too obsessed with intellectual perfection to fall into a predicament. But isn't this exactly us, the readers, are expecting?
Ironically, the revelation of the traitor comes from a departure from perfection. The character's ultimate success lies in embracing uncertainty rather than relying solely on intellect. This suggests that sometimes, abandoning the pursuit of perfection can lead to unexpected solutions. In this case, it allowed Mai Jia to craft a more compelling ending.
Objectively speaking, it is very bold to introduce real historical figures and facts in the concluding part of the work. But since this attempt is not Mai Jia’s forte, the final presentation somewhat dilutes the tension of the entire work. This may be the price he paid for his ambition, but it is also more like a kind of dilemma.
Like a thread in a maze, the identity of the traitor who spread the massage constantly shifted, tantalizing yet always out of grasp.
4.9 / 5 stars. (The Chinese version 风声 is more precise & interesting to read).
October 14, 2020
I loved it. It has been criticised as bloated and overhyped but if you're looking for a cerebral spy thriller, this book has it. The second half of the book when it goes meta may confuse some readers into thinking these events are real and that just adds to the pleasure of reading this book.
February 23, 2020
Apenas a primeira parte do livro é interessante para quem se interessa sobre a guerra chino japonesa e a resistência à ocupação japonesa . A segunda parte torna a primeira confusa e até inverosímil e a terceira soa a auto elogio do escritor ao autor do livro que é afinal ele próprio !
December 17, 2023
Prima parte meh, la seconda mi è piaciuta molto, la terza mi ha annoiato
September 18, 2023
3,5*
Divide-se em 3 partes: uma com a versão "histórica" do incidente, a segunda com a retificação (ou não) da história contada e a terceira com o melhor enquadramento histórico da personagem "japonesa", como uma aula de história, sendo que, e paradoxalmente, o próprio autor se expõe tornando a sua narrativa também um pouco autobiográfica em certas demandas.
Do ponto de vista formal, é um livro interessante com uma estrutura pouco comum.
Do ponto de vista da ação acaba por ser algo mastigada e um incidente que não daria mais que um conto ou uma novela tornou-se num romance (até extenso pois roça as 500 páginas).
Já tinha lido "a cifra" do autor, pelo que não me surpreendeu em demasia este vai-e-vem mastigado.
Divide-se em 3 partes: uma com a versão "histórica" do incidente, a segunda com a retificação (ou não) da história contada e a terceira com o melhor enquadramento histórico da personagem "japonesa", como uma aula de história, sendo que, e paradoxalmente, o próprio autor se expõe tornando a sua narrativa também um pouco autobiográfica em certas demandas.
Do ponto de vista formal, é um livro interessante com uma estrutura pouco comum.
Do ponto de vista da ação acaba por ser algo mastigada e um incidente que não daria mais que um conto ou uma novela tornou-se num romance (até extenso pois roça as 500 páginas).
Já tinha lido "a cifra" do autor, pelo que não me surpreendeu em demasia este vai-e-vem mastigado.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 9, 2020
The Message is the first Chinese fiction book that I have read and despite knowing nothing at all about either Chinese or Japanese history I found it fascinating. If at times a little confusing.
In three parts, the first concerns the interrogation of the five people. You don’t really get to know much about any of them, most of the focus is on the ways of getting information, the tricks that Hihara and the others tried to get the information they required. And the mercifully brief descriptions of the torture methods used when this failed. It was this part of the book that I found the most confusing, partly due to my lack of knowledge concerning the history and partly due to the number of people involved. I had no idea who Ghost was or if the right person had been found guilty.
The second part was my favourite, it was here that I realised what meta -fiction was and I stopped looking for information about the characters online. More importantly I felt I got to know at least two of the characters more. Not necessarily liking them but I understood them more and had more sympathy. It was also here, when I started to appreciate how clever this book was.
The third part goes into detail of the history of the conflict between China and Japan, the identities of some of the characters involved and the beauty of the area where all the crimes took place. And the believable account of how it was protected.
I have never read a book like this before, not easy to read but I’m glad I took a chance
In three parts, the first concerns the interrogation of the five people. You don’t really get to know much about any of them, most of the focus is on the ways of getting information, the tricks that Hihara and the others tried to get the information they required. And the mercifully brief descriptions of the torture methods used when this failed. It was this part of the book that I found the most confusing, partly due to my lack of knowledge concerning the history and partly due to the number of people involved. I had no idea who Ghost was or if the right person had been found guilty.
The second part was my favourite, it was here that I realised what meta -fiction was and I stopped looking for information about the characters online. More importantly I felt I got to know at least two of the characters more. Not necessarily liking them but I understood them more and had more sympathy. It was also here, when I started to appreciate how clever this book was.
The third part goes into detail of the history of the conflict between China and Japan, the identities of some of the characters involved and the beauty of the area where all the crimes took place. And the believable account of how it was protected.
I have never read a book like this before, not easy to read but I’m glad I took a chance
February 15, 2021
Một quyển sách viết về những giai đoạn gian truân của TQ, mà ở đó là hoạt động của hệ thống tình báo, những con người dũng cảm, sẵn sàng dấng thân, sẵn sàng hi sinh vì mục đích, lý tưởng cao cả. Tuy rằng mỗi người có mục đích khác nhau, có thể dùng thủ đoạn khác nhau nhưng chung quy vẫn là đạt đc kết quả như mình mong muốn. Nổi lên là mối quan hệ, hay nói đúng hơn là tình cảm giữa Cố Hiểu Mộng và Lý Ninh Ngọc.
February 16, 2023
Very clever
December 22, 2024
Tên bản dịch là Phong Thanh (tác giả Mạch Gia)
December 30, 2020
Plotwise we're in classic spy thriller territory in The Message – it’s a hunt to find a mole named Ghost with five suspects. We’re placed straight into the action, by Nanjing’s West Lake in a former brothel now spy headquarters, with the five suspects lured there and a molehunter wheedling away as best he can.
For the first half of the book The Message has some great trickery and tradecraft, but it’s not as human as I wanted. It felt more like a game; I didn’t feel the characters’ backgrounds, motivations, lives and passions. I know it’s not fair to compare, nor to review a book I wished I’d read rather than the one I did read, but The Message is no Tinker Tailor.
The ‘human’ aspect was really bugging me throughout; I never really felt I was living or experiencing the characters, just being told how they felt; even the West Lake setting isn’t really developed, with the descriptions more Lonely Planet than Bai Juyi. But also the set-up really surprised me – we’re in the midst of the Sino-Japanese war, but we’re not with the Communists or the Nationalists, we’re with the occupying Japanese and the puppet regime. That was very unexpected for me. Somehow the logic of the genre is upside down – we’re with Colonel Hihara and his collaborators as he tricks, interrogates, tortures and murders his way to discovering the Communist mole. For someone who enjoys a bit of cryptography it’s a surprisingly unimportant plot feature – it’s all more brutal than I expected (that said, I’m delighted that I now know how Morse Code works in Chinese). I found the writing very objective, simple and dispassionate; Mai Jia just tells the story. Every now and then we get a few paragraphs from the unidentified Ghost’s perspective but it feels quite perfunctory Mai Jia doesn’t really run with the multiple perspectives. It means that while the translation is efficient, it doesn’t really get to sing either.
And then, only halfway through, the mystery is over – we know the mole, and the story ends. It comes as a shock, particularly when you’re holding a physical book only half completed, but also because, well, it turns out the mystery wasn’t very complex or satisfying. But then the metanarrative begins. For the second half we’re joining the Author as he investigates the events we’ve just read about by speaking to one of the ‘real life’ characters and the relatives of others. I put ‘real life’ in inverted commas – Mai Jia presents them as real, as well as some of the other characters such as Colonel Hihara. Hihara gets a full chapter about his very credible life, including a close friendship with Akutagawa. I’m still not entirely sure that Hihara really is fictional, and can’t quite bring myself to Google it.
I was willing to buy into this, but others might not. It felt gently experimental, and allowed Mai to cast doubt on the narrative we’d just read and explore some of the fictional and duplicitous elements, playing with what is ‘fake’ and what is ‘real’, as well as fleshing out the narrative and some of the characters’ more human sides. On reflection I can’t say it’s a successful experiment – I would prefer a 400 page spy thriller to focus on weaving an intricate narrative web with real fleshed out characters rather than play with me in this way.
For the first half of the book The Message has some great trickery and tradecraft, but it’s not as human as I wanted. It felt more like a game; I didn’t feel the characters’ backgrounds, motivations, lives and passions. I know it’s not fair to compare, nor to review a book I wished I’d read rather than the one I did read, but The Message is no Tinker Tailor.
The ‘human’ aspect was really bugging me throughout; I never really felt I was living or experiencing the characters, just being told how they felt; even the West Lake setting isn’t really developed, with the descriptions more Lonely Planet than Bai Juyi. But also the set-up really surprised me – we’re in the midst of the Sino-Japanese war, but we’re not with the Communists or the Nationalists, we’re with the occupying Japanese and the puppet regime. That was very unexpected for me. Somehow the logic of the genre is upside down – we’re with Colonel Hihara and his collaborators as he tricks, interrogates, tortures and murders his way to discovering the Communist mole. For someone who enjoys a bit of cryptography it’s a surprisingly unimportant plot feature – it’s all more brutal than I expected (that said, I’m delighted that I now know how Morse Code works in Chinese). I found the writing very objective, simple and dispassionate; Mai Jia just tells the story. Every now and then we get a few paragraphs from the unidentified Ghost’s perspective but it feels quite perfunctory Mai Jia doesn’t really run with the multiple perspectives. It means that while the translation is efficient, it doesn’t really get to sing either.
And then, only halfway through, the mystery is over – we know the mole, and the story ends. It comes as a shock, particularly when you’re holding a physical book only half completed, but also because, well, it turns out the mystery wasn’t very complex or satisfying. But then the metanarrative begins. For the second half we’re joining the Author as he investigates the events we’ve just read about by speaking to one of the ‘real life’ characters and the relatives of others. I put ‘real life’ in inverted commas – Mai Jia presents them as real, as well as some of the other characters such as Colonel Hihara. Hihara gets a full chapter about his very credible life, including a close friendship with Akutagawa. I’m still not entirely sure that Hihara really is fictional, and can’t quite bring myself to Google it.
I was willing to buy into this, but others might not. It felt gently experimental, and allowed Mai to cast doubt on the narrative we’d just read and explore some of the fictional and duplicitous elements, playing with what is ‘fake’ and what is ‘real’, as well as fleshing out the narrative and some of the characters’ more human sides. On reflection I can’t say it’s a successful experiment – I would prefer a 400 page spy thriller to focus on weaving an intricate narrative web with real fleshed out characters rather than play with me in this way.
May 27, 2020
I kept going with this book in the hope that it would get better, but on finishing it I have to say that I didn’t like it at all. The writing was poor, the translation was clunky, the schematic was off-kilter, I couldn’t get to grips with the characters at all - I just couldn’t wait to finish it and rushed through the last few chapters. On paper, the plot sounds really interesting, even though it isn’t perhaps that original, but reading it was a struggle and I just got sick of it.
March 3, 2021
民国时期是我最不喜欢读/看/听的一个阶段，这个小说就一个故事分三个视角，不长，读完感觉不错，正好，合适。
November 21, 2023
Note: I am bilingual in both English and Mandarin.
Haven't been reading for a long time and this book was great in transporting me back to the thrills of reading again. However, since it is a translated book after all, I do suspect that some of the linguistic impact has been lost.
The names themselves already are so confusing. We are introduced to five characters by their full names, then the author quickly refer to them by the titles of their job instead. I had to re-read this several times to register the characters, so I would much prefer the setting of the characters to be built up more in-depth, rather than a simple description.
Mandarin itself is such an intricate languge where a lot of wordplay could have been cleverly disguised or shortened. The description of the beauty in nature would have reflected a different impact in a different language.
Nevertheless, the story is spun in such a unique way that I was caught off-guard not even halfway through. There are meta-narratives beyond what was initially shared, so we sink deeper and deeper into the account. Even when you thought you knew the story, there are twists that you have never imagined. The cleverness of how the book is written is definitely something that is different from the rest of the thriller.
Although - some may not appreciate it because of how draggy the same story can be - how many times do you want to repeat it? Twice makes the cut but repeating it thrice is too much, even the author gives up storytelling towards the end and just shared the truth accordingly.
Overall, a good read!
Haven't been reading for a long time and this book was great in transporting me back to the thrills of reading again. However, since it is a translated book after all, I do suspect that some of the linguistic impact has been lost.
The names themselves already are so confusing. We are introduced to five characters by their full names, then the author quickly refer to them by the titles of their job instead. I had to re-read this several times to register the characters, so I would much prefer the setting of the characters to be built up more in-depth, rather than a simple description.
Mandarin itself is such an intricate languge where a lot of wordplay could have been cleverly disguised or shortened. The description of the beauty in nature would have reflected a different impact in a different language.
Nevertheless, the story is spun in such a unique way that I was caught off-guard not even halfway through. There are meta-narratives beyond what was initially shared, so we sink deeper and deeper into the account. Even when you thought you knew the story, there are twists that you have never imagined. The cleverness of how the book is written is definitely something that is different from the rest of the thriller.
Although - some may not appreciate it because of how draggy the same story can be - how many times do you want to repeat it? Twice makes the cut but repeating it thrice is too much, even the author gives up storytelling towards the end and just shared the truth accordingly.
Overall, a good read!
April 10, 2020
This is an extremely intriguing novel. Two competing stories, one tale. Mia Jia has written a novel that weaves a seemingly innocuous tale of wartime espionage into a much larger panoramic tale of how modern China emerges from the brutal onslaught of Imperial Japan. However, the novel is much more complex than this.
First we are given a story from two different viewpoints. Then we have the detail of how and why each of the main characters in the story is placed within it - how backgrounds and family influence and mould them.
The result for the reader is a journey concerning the role of myth and heroes in the formation of modern China; the heroism of two women on two different ideological sides but with one task in mind. How humanity and brutality clash and how the course of history is never decided by intellectual means. Finally, how the majestic panorama of China itself has beguiled and enticed individuals and powerful nations to want to own and plunder its treasures and it’s peoples both in the past and and the present.
I loved this translation and it has given me a thirst to seek out more Chinese literature.
First we are given a story from two different viewpoints. Then we have the detail of how and why each of the main characters in the story is placed within it - how backgrounds and family influence and mould them.
The result for the reader is a journey concerning the role of myth and heroes in the formation of modern China; the heroism of two women on two different ideological sides but with one task in mind. How humanity and brutality clash and how the course of history is never decided by intellectual means. Finally, how the majestic panorama of China itself has beguiled and enticed individuals and powerful nations to want to own and plunder its treasures and it’s peoples both in the past and and the present.
I loved this translation and it has given me a thirst to seek out more Chinese literature.
August 28, 2022
Confesso que quando comprei e depois quando o conecto a ler, fui invadido por uma desconfiança enorme even ambos os casos (compra e leitura) foram por impulso. Depois de um início algo difícil, conjuntura de vida, la engrenei e foi uma leitura muito agradável e surpreendente. Em 1992 estive em Hangzhou e tenho algumas memórias, entre as quais uma viagem de comboio difícil e depois um conjunto de paisagens deslumbrantes, o livro levou-me lá e fiquei com vontade de vim outra idade regressar à Suíça chinesa. Livro bem escrito e de boa leitura 😉
February 25, 2025
Not the usual type of book I read so it was interesting to read. As an overall, I think it was a good book, the intrigue was catchy and the clear separation of part one and part two added another dimension to the story and I believe that’s the great thing about the story. However I do think it was sometimes too long on either some details or some part of the story, which made it quite confusing at time. Especially the second part was quite lengthy on occasions, and characters were meh sometimes. But still not a bad book, quite enjoyed it!
July 8, 2020
O livro é excelente, contém bastantes ideias do que se passava na altura (depois 2 Guerra Mundial), certas partes do livro são um pouco confusas, mas de resto acho que é perfeito, tem alguns provérbios chineses lá o que me fascinaram e além disso a historia deixa te preso porque queres saber sempre o que vai acontecer a seguir. Muito bom o livro!
January 4, 2026
Idea di base interessante, ma sviluppo spesso prevedibile e noioso. Le due parti "meta" sembrano quasi un espediente dell'autore per non essere riuscito ad ottenere l'effetto che cercava, mostrare la verità da diversi punti di vista, in modo integrato alla narrazione convenzionale della prima parte.
200 pagine di troppo.
200 pagine di troppo.
November 12, 2022
Egy kínai regényt szerettem volna olvasni – kaptam helyette egy körülményes, izgalmasnak mondott, mégis teljesen érdektelen, alig-alig hihető, a kínai történelem kulisszáit használó, virtigli nyugati szöveget és történetet. Rettenetes.
February 25, 2023
Read this after Decoded and I think it's the better of the two - and that's saying something.
A word of warning, though: If you need straightforward plots, unambiguous characters and a conclusive ending this might not be your cup of tea. I'm just here for the ride and this was a hell of a ride.
A word of warning, though: If you need straightforward plots, unambiguous characters and a conclusive ending this might not be your cup of tea. I'm just here for the ride and this was a hell of a ride.
May 24, 2020
Couldn't go pass the 20th page. Something about this book that doesn't pull me in.
September 6, 2020
比电影精彩~
January 9, 2021
一个故事，麦家从三个视角来写，真假虚实难辨。整个故事确如他最后所说，像一场密室逃脱，但在这场逃脱中，死亡不意味着失败（想到了《蝴蝶梦》里的Rebecca，不过这次是为了民族大义），所以惊心动魄中还有荡气回肠的气节。
除此之外就是几个主要人物塑造得真好啊，国别、立场会随着时代而发生改变，并且有一些秘密已经被深埋，也只供读者们臆测了。
除此之外就是几个主要人物塑造得真好啊，国别、立场会随着时代而发生改变，并且有一些秘密已经被深埋，也只供读者们臆测了。
February 18, 2021
因电影而来，但显然不是完全一样的东西。一个是个精彩的谍战片，另一个谍战之余探讨了更深的东西，风从哪里来，如何判断一件事情的真相可能更值得深究。
December 11, 2022
Chaotic and badly written. Surprisingly by a bestselling Chinese author.
May 3, 2023
A wonderful mix of mystery, logic, fiction and real life historical accounts of a captivating spy story. very tightly packed and information was presented very well. definitely reccomend!
October 13, 2024
Para fãs de histórias de espionagem.
E para estudiosos da mente humana
Intrigante da primeira a última pagina
E para estudiosos da mente humana
Intrigante da primeira a última pagina
March 2, 2025
I think it was really amazing story. He also writes beautifully.
December 13, 2025
电影可看，小说可以不看。
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews