Patrick Saint-Paul has been a correspondent in China for the French newspaper Le Figaro since 2013. Over his career he has also covered assignments in Sierra Leone (which won him the Jean Marin Prize for War Correspondents in 2000), Liberia, Sudan, Côte d'Ivoire, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Germany, as well as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Rat People is his first book.

David Homel is a writer, journalist, filmmaker, and translator, and the author of seven novels. He has translated many French-language books into English and is a two-time recipient of the Governor General's Literary Award for Translation.

Introduction to English-Language Edition
Chapter 1: Wandering Rats in the Kingdom of Mercantile Decadence
Chapter 2: Obstacle Course
Chapter 3: A Sewer Rat in the Human World
Chapter 4: Retirement in Julong Garden
Chapter 5: Chinese Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
Chapter 6: Abandoned Children
Chapter 7: Youth Denied
Chapter 8: The Mingong, Empire Builders
Chapter 9: A Night with the Rats