wild swans three daughters of china book review

The second is her mother, an earnest Communist who raised a large family at a time which was extremely bad for family life. One is the author herself, now a naturalised British citizen. I'm going to do this book justice, because damn it, it deserves it.įor those of you who missed the hype back in the early 1990s, Wild Swans is the true history of three generations of women living through the horrible nightmare that is modern Chinese history. I could sum the book up by saying it's the greatest ode to courage and resilience ever written, or that it's one of those rare books which make you despair of humanity and then go a long way towards restoring your faith in it, but no, I'm not going to leave it at that. Don't let that keep you from giving it a try, though, for by some strange mechanism, it also ranks among the most uplifting books I've read, chronicling as it does a courage, resilience and will to survive which are nothing short of riveting. Most of our images are sourced automatically, so the book cover shown might be different to the edition we have in stock.Wild Swans may well be the most depressing book I've ever read. This is a used book in good condition, meaning that it shows signs of wear but has no major defects.

For this new edition, Jung Chang has written a new introduction, bringing her own story up to date, and describing the effect the success of 'Wild Swans' has had on her life.

At times terrifying, at times astonishing, always deeply moving, 'Wild Swans' is a book in a million, a true story with all the passion and grandeur of a great novel. Through the story of three generations of women - grandmother, mother and daughter - 'Wild Swans' tells nothing less than the whole tumultuous history of China's tragic 20th-century, from sword-bearing warlords to Chairman Mao, from the Manchu Empire to the Cultural Revolution. Few books have ever had such an impact on their readers. Not only did it become the bestselling non-fiction book in British publishing history, with sales of well over two million, it was received with unanimous critical acclaim, and was named the winner of the 1992 NCR Book Award and the 1993 British Book of the Year Award. The publication of 'Wild Swans' in 1991 was a worldwide phenomenon.

Print Wild Swans - Three Daughters of ChinaĪ new edition of one of the bestselling and best-loved books of recent years, with a new introduction by the author.

Wild swans three daughters of china book review