Book description
Few books have had such an impact as Wild Swans: a popular bestseller
which has sold more than 13 million copies and a critically acclaimed
history of China; a tragic tale of nightmarish cruelty and an uplifting
story of bravery and survival.
Through the story of three generations of women in her own family - the
grandmother given to the warlord as a concubine, the Communist mother
and the daughter herself - Jung Chang reveals the epic history of
China's twentieth century.
Breathtaking in its scope, unforgettable in its descriptions, this is a
masterpiece which is extraordinary in every way. 'It is impossible to
exaggerate the importance of this book.' Mary Wesley
'Everything about “Wild Swans” is extraordinary. It arouses all the
emotions, such as pity and terror, that great tragedy is supposed to
evoke, and also a complex mixture of admiration, despair and delight at
seeing a luminous intelligence directed at the heart of darkness.'
Minette Marrin, Sunday Telegraph
'Immensely moving and unsettling; an unforgettable portrait of the
brain-death of a nation.' J. G. Ballard, Sunday Times
'“Wild Swans” made me feel like a five-year-old. This is a family memoir
that has the breadth of the most enduring social history.' Martin Amis,
Independent on Sunday
'There has never been a book like this.' Edward Behr, Los Angeles Times
Jung Chang was born in Yibin, Sichuan Province, China, in 1952. She was
briefly a Red Guard at the age of fourteen, and then a peasant, a
'barefoot doctor', a steelworker and an electrician. She came to Britain
in 1978, and in 1982 became the first person from the People's Republic
of China to receive a doctorate from a British university. 'Wild Swans'
won the 1992 NCR Book Award and the 1993 British Book of the Year. She
lives in London.
