Description
Book SynopsisMuch has been written about the Tiananmen Square protests, but very little exists in the words of those who were actually there.
For over seven years, Liao Yiwu—a master of contemporary Chinese literature, imprisoned and persecuted as a counter-revolutionary until he fled the country in 2011—secretly interviewed survivors of the devastating 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Tortured, imprisoned, and forced into silence and the margins of Chinese society for thirty years, their harrowing and unforgettable stories are now finally revealed.
Trade Review“Moving… a memorable series of portraits of the working-class people who defended Tiananmen Square."
—New York Review of Books“Liao shows that it was working-class Beijingers who made the supreme sacrifice”
—The New York Times“A series of harrowing, unforgettable tales...Had [Liao Yiwu] not fled the country in 2011, they may never have emerged. An indispensable historical document.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)“Liao Yiwu’s searing account of what happened in Beijing on June 4, 1989, and its lasting impact, doggedly collected from witnesses, demands attention.”
—South China Morning Post“This captivating work is essential for readers interested in China’s recent history.”
—Library Journal (starred)
