A hit with Western readers

Mai Jia's novel Decoded has been translated into more than 30 languages and published in different countries.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Pointing to the coincidence, he says: "If her flight was not delayed, or her grandfather was not a codebreaker, then what?"

Besides mystery, Mai Jia's personal experiences also lead him to explore loneliness.

"I write because of loneliness. I thought that if I write the loneliness out, I will feel better. But the loneliness only gets more intense. Maybe, some people are born to be lonely. Loneliness, like a birthmark, grows together with you. A lonely person of course can create only lonely characters, just like me," says Mai.

As Mai Jia's grandfather was a landlord, and his father was a Christian and was categorized as a rightist, he suffered a lot during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76). He was bullied by not only students but also by teachers. He felt isolated and lonely.

Young Mai Jia started to keep diaries at 11, and by the time he started to write, he had 36 volumes. Then, when he read J. D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, with its themes of teenage angst and alienation, he realized that he could write a novel like that. The floodgates were thus opened.

In 1991, Mai Jia started work on his first novel, Decoded, and over 11 years he rewrote the work of 200,000 characters three times. It was rejected by publishers 17 times because of its sensitive content.