BookDragon Books for the Diverse Reader

Imagine a childhood marked by separation, isolation, abuse, sexual assault, disease and starvation. And imagine feeling lucky – because you survived such atrocities.

The most tragic irony of all is that Emily Wu is indeed lucky, even blessed. While she miraculously managed to reach adulthood, she witnessed far too many senseless deaths. Decades later, without self-pity and with a child’s sense of wonder intact, Wu offers her story in Feather in the Storm: A Childhood Lost in Chaos, written with San Jose history Professor Larry Engelmann.

Since the late 1980s, best-selling memoirs such as Nien Chieng’s Life and Death in Shanghai, Jung Chang’s Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China and Anchee Min’s Red Azalea have exposed unspeakable conditions during the Cultural Revolution, part of Chairman Mao Zedong’s reign of terror. Last year’s Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday was the first major title in the West to expose the extent of Mao’s atrocities, which allegedly caused more than 70 million deaths during so-called peacetime. … [click here for more]

Review: San Francisco Chronicle, October 8, 2006

Readers: Young Adult, Adult

Published: 2006