WOW. What an amazing book. The writing is engrossing from page one. At no point in reading this was I bored or bogged down by details. It is a beautiful marriage of history and generational storytelling.

The content is weighty and often heartbreaking, but the overwhelming theme of the book is of human perseverance and familial love. China is a country that has been so shielded from the world, and in turn I have a very naive and ignorant understanding of the country.

Unbelievably grateful for the honesty and intention that this story was written. I am curious to read accounts of Communist China, especially the cultural Revolution and Great Leap Forward, from the perspective of a less privileged narrator. Given how brutal Jung’s life was despite the privilege of her family makes me sadly curious about the horrors that the peasant population had to endure under Mao’s reign.

This was a wonderful intro to an incredibly long and complex history of China. I am eager to learn more.

Highly highly recommend this book.

Content warning: murder, torture, state-sanctioned violence, death