朝鮮向來是個外人難以深入、臆測的一個祕密國度。
夜空中，整個朝鮮地區都是黑的，那黑暗訴說著人民深不可測的痛苦，有時卻又穿插著零星微弱的希望曙光……

與燈光閃耀的南韓相比，北韓好似黑夜與白晝。在這裡，飢荒奪去了數百萬人的性命，製造和貿易幾乎停止，經濟崩潰，醫療機制失敗，人們習慣於行走在要跨越屍體倒臥在街頭。

朝鮮曾遭受兩次悲劇。第一個是朝鮮半島分裂的二戰結束時（史達林安扶植金正日作為蘇聯在朝鮮的代理人），第二悲劇是蘇聯的崩潰（在後蘇聯時代，朝鮮遭受短缺，電力，自來水和食物）。金日成和金正日藉機創造了個人崇拜的一種痴迷的支持，自我監督的社會。本書透過生動地描寫六個勇敢的叛逃者的悲哀生命，投射出現實生活中集權主義的本質。

《我們最幸福》作為一個故事它確實引人入勝，但實質上則作為一種政治信息的描述：看這個極權主義鎮壓下可怕的朝鮮共和國是如何成功地讓人民對外部世界完全一無所悉，以及他們如何避免內部政權的垮台？其中究竟暗藏了什麼樣的詭計？

從六名平凡百姓的生活中，我們對北韓有了超乎以往的認識。

A remarkable view into North Korea, as seen through the lives of six ordinary citizens
Nothing to Envy follows the lives of six North Koreans over fifteen years—a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung, the unchallenged rise to power of his son Kim Jong-il, and the devastation of a far-ranging famine that killed one-fifth of the population.
Taking us into a landscape most of us have never before seen, award-winning journalist Barbara Demick brings to life what it means to be living under the most repressive totalitarian regime today—an Orwellian world that is by choice not connected to the Internet, in which radio and television dials are welded to the one government station, and where displays of affection are punished; a police state where informants are rewarded and where an offhand remark can send a person to the gulag for life.
Demick takes us deep inside the country, beyond the reach of government censors. Through meticulous and sensitive reporting, we see her six subjects—average North Korean citizens—fall in love, raise families, nurture ambitions, and struggle for survival. One by one, we experience the moments when they realize that their government has betrayed them.
Nothing to Envy is a groundbreaking addition to the literature of totalitarianism and an eye-opening look at a closed world that is of increasing global importance.

"Set in Aba, a town perched at 12,000 feet on the Tibetan plateau in the far western reaches of China that has been the engine of Tibetan resistance for decades, Eat the Buddha tells the story of a nation through the lives of ordinary people living in the throes of this conflict. Award-winning journalist Barbara Demick illuminates a part of China and the aggressions of this superpower that have been largely off limits to Westerners who have long romanticized Tibetans as a deeply spiritual, peaceful people. She tells a sweeping story that spans decades through the lives of her subjects, among them a princess whose family lost everything in the Cultural Revolution; a young student from a nomadic family who becomes radicalized in the storied monastery of Kirta; an upwardly mobile shopkeeper who falls in love with a Chinese woman; a poet and intellectual who risks everything to voice his resistance. Demick paints a broad canvas through an intimate view of these lives, depicting the tradition of resistance that results in the shocking acts of self-immolation, the vibrant, enduring power of Tibetan Buddhism, and the clash of modernity with ancient ways of life. Her depiction is nuanced, unvarnished, and at times shocking"--

繼暢銷書《我們最幸福：★北韓人民的真實生活》，
獲獎記者芭芭拉．德米克又一大無畏揭開獨裁政權真實樣貌之作！！
此次，德米克深入中國數一數二最難潛入的地方，
探究在中國政府嚴密監控下生活的藏人變成了什麼樣子？中國究竟急於隱瞞哪些事情？
『中共究竟是怎麼樣的一個政權？
沒讀過這部作品，別說你真的了解中國。』
──歐逸文（Evan Osnos）


▶▶▶坐落在青藏高原東部的藏族小鎮「阿壩」（Ngaba），是藏人與共產黨與最初交手的地方，
也是今日備受中國當局壓制與布滿鬼眼監控之地。
一九三○年代，毛澤東的紅軍敗逃到青藏高原，抵達阿壩時，
士兵因為過於飢餓而洗劫當地寺廟，吃下那些由麵粉與酥油做成的小佛像，
他們其實是在吃佛。他們自知褻瀆了西藏人的神聖信仰，卻滿不在乎。
自此每隔十年左右，阿壩就會出現反政府的激烈抗議活動，
自焚的風潮完全戳破了中共聲稱藏人樂於受到中國統治的說法，
這個地方也成了當局的眼中釘……
※本書入圍巴美列捷福（Baillie Gifford Prize）非虛構寫作獎、《紐約時報》年度最佳好書！
《華盛頓郵報》、《經濟學人》、《科克斯書評》、《圖書館期刊》、《Outside》、《出版人週刊》、《書單》、美國國家公共廣播電臺……各大媒體齊聲讚譽！
※札西慈仁　西藏台灣人權連線理事長｜李芃萱　圖博、西藏運動者｜林昶佐Freddy Lim 立法委員、閃靈主唱｜葉浩　政大政治系副教授｜顏擇雅　作家、出版人｜蘭萱　資深媒體人、中廣蘭萱時間節目主持人……一致強力推薦！
現下新疆維吾爾人與香港人所面臨的處境，藏人早已親身經歷。
中國政府自《十七條協議》簽訂後短短不到幾年，旋即打破一國兩制、高度自治的承諾，無情剝奪藏人的土地、信仰、文化與記憶，對西藏的破壞遠多於創造，一九五○、六○年代，中共在西藏東部對抵抗運動鎮壓造成的死亡人數，甚至比中國要求日本一再道歉的南京大屠殺還多！而那喪生的數十萬西藏「分裂分子」，無疑成了官方口中根本不存在的數字；尚且不論藏人同樣歷經毛澤東的大躍進，死在獄中，死於飢餓，在清算折磨中被處決，在勞改流放中失去生命，他們的遭遇比漢人更慘，不僅更早受到虐待，而且受虐的時間更長。
老一輩的藏人流血奮力抵抗解放軍的入侵，年輕一輩的藏人在共產黨龐大勢力的箝制下，則銘記達賴喇嘛的非暴力理念──他們不忍心殺戮他人，只殺自己──以自焚做為對中共高壓統治的沉重抗議。中國的宣傳人員也愈來愈難以宣稱藏人很幸福，自焚事件接二連三地發生，完全擋不下來。
毛澤東曾對達賴喇嘛說：「宗教是毒藥。」計畫性消滅藏人的語言是必須，打造現代化的樣板城市是必須，鼓勵他們在家中展示習近平的肖像與中國國旗更是必須；黨才是你唯一的神。懼怕宗教力量的共產黨在其建黨一百週年之際，更不遺餘力地淡化藏人生活中佛教信仰的比重，以弱化達賴的影響力。

中國正成為完美的獨裁者。今日藏人的恐懼程度，堪比作者在北韓看到的情況。《洛杉磯時報》駐北京辦公室主任芭芭拉．德米克耗時數年，深入阿壩、成都、拉薩、理縣、九寨溝、南京、中尼邊界、印度達蘭薩拉等地，親訪達賴喇嘛與數十位藏人，並逐一考證查實，描繪出在全世界最有權力的政府的壓制之下，西藏最真實的處境。
● 本書敘事橫跨數十年的西藏與中國現代史，透過德米克筆下的人物娓娓道來：
在文革期間遭到抄家的公主；在著名的格爾登寺變得激進的年輕流浪藏人；
努力向上卻愛上中國女人的行動創業者；冒著生命危險大膽反抗的詩人兼知識分子；
自小就被迫在家庭與難以捉摸的中國金錢誘惑之間做抉擇的藏族女學生……
他們都是普通人，他們只是想在家鄉過正常、幸福的生活，
而不必在信仰、家庭、國家之間做出棘手的抉擇。
他們都面臨同樣的困境：
究竟要抵抗中國，還是加入中國？
究竟要遵循佛教教導的慈悲與非暴力嗎，還是起而反抗？
西方人長久以來把西藏文化想像成一種充滿靈性與平和的文化，德米克揭開了這種長久以來的誤解，帶大家洞悉二十一世紀藏人的真實樣貌。當今的藏人飽受一個勢不可擋、無所不能的超級大國掠奪，但他們仍努力保護文化、信仰與語言。德米克的描述細膩入微，樸實無華，時而令人震驚，久久無法忘懷。
【各界讚譽】
★「德米克在報導二十一世紀的西藏時，補上了罕見的人文面向，包括老一輩的抗爭遺風引發了年輕一輩的自焚抗議，以及藏人在中國政府的嚴密監控下生活，承受著種種的痛苦與矛盾，但外界幾乎都看不見。」──《書單》雜誌
★「精采絕倫……這本書不僅描寫現代的西藏，也有助於說明當前中國的惡劣時局。」──《金融時報》
★「這本精彩動人的好書以獨特的視角，檢視西藏的困境。它帶著讀者了解，藏人在一場他們既不想要、也令他們費解的政治風暴中，遭到莫名折騰的感受。」──《每日郵報》
★「這本書的研究深入細膩，講述西藏東部那個美麗地帶的故事，那裡是傳說中美顙王國的所在……藏人在那片壯麗的環境中蓬勃發展了數千年，卻在過去七十年間遭到中國共產黨的侵略與殖民，飽受摧殘。德米克大膽無畏的描寫，理當獲得最高榮耀。讀者可從她筆下那些非凡人物的真實生活，感受到他們人生的巨變。」──羅伯特．瑟曼（Robert A. F. Thurman），哥倫比亞大學榮譽教授
★「沒讀過德米克描寫的西藏，就無法真正理解中國。她的作品敘事公允，讀來令人不寒而慄，書寫嚴謹，令人敬畏，文字如電影般生動，躍然紙上。」──歐逸文（Evan Osnos），《野心時代》作者
★「德米克為一個座落在青藏高原、成為反抗基地的前線小鎮，寫下一部哀傷的故事。她以小說的深刻筆觸，透過獨到的細膩研究，提醒大家記憶的持久力量，讓那些不為人知的歷史得以曝光。」──茨仁夏加，著名西藏歷史學家、《龍在雪域》作者
★「任何對中國與西藏感興趣的人，都不該錯過德米克的新書。這本書報導豐富，行文優美，故事深入人心，令人難以釋卷。」──潘文（John Pomfret），《華盛頓郵報》前北京分社社長、《美國與中國》作者
★「德米克敞開胸懷去體驗，深入傾聽，冒險犯難，從許多個人飽滿的人生經歷與體會中，勾勒出一幅繽紛的歷史圖景。」──書評家帕盧．薩格（Parul Sehgal），《紐約時報》

An eye-opening account of life inside North Korea—a closed world of increasing global importance—hailed as a “tour de force of meticulous reporting” (The New York Review of Books)
 
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST
 
In this landmark addition to the literature of totalitarianism, award-winning journalist Barbara Demick follows the lives of six North Korean citizens over fifteen years—a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung, the rise to power of his son Kim Jong-il (the father of Kim Jong-un), and a devastating famine that killed one-fifth of the population.
 
Demick brings to life what it means to be living under the most repressive regime today—an Orwellian world that is by choice not connected to the Internet, where displays of affection are punished, informants are rewarded, and an offhand remark can send a person to the gulag for life. She takes us deep inside the country, beyond the reach of government censors, and through meticulous and sensitive reporting we see her subjects fall in love, raise families, nurture ambitions, and struggle for survival. One by one, we witness their profound, life-altering disillusionment with the government and their realization that, rather than providing them with lives of abundance, their country has betrayed them.

Praise for Nothing to Envy

“Provocative . . . offers extensive evidence of the author’s deep knowledge of this country while keeping its sights firmly on individual stories and human details.”—The New York Times

“Deeply moving . . . The personal stories are related with novelistic detail.”—The Wall Street Journal

“A tour de force of meticulous reporting.”—The New York Review of Books

“Excellent . . . humanizes a downtrodden, long-suffering people whose individual lives, hopes and dreams are so little known abroad.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“The narrow boundaries of our knowledge have expanded radically with the publication of Nothing to Envy. . . . Elegantly structured and written, [it] is a groundbreaking work of literary nonfiction.”—John Delury, Slate

“At times a page-turner, at others an intimate study in totalitarian psychology.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer

North Korea is Orwell's 1984 made reality: it is the only country in the world not connected to the internet; Gone with the Wind is a dangerous, banned book; during political rallies, spies study your expression to check your sincerity. After the death of the country's great leader Kim Il Sung in 1994, famine descended: people stumbled over dead bodies in the street and ate tree bark to survive. Nothing to Envy weaves together the stories of adversity and resilience of six residents of Chongin, North Korea's third largest city. From extensive interviews and with tenacious investigative work, Barbara Demick has recreated the concerns, culture and lifestyles of North Korean citizens in a gripping narrative, and vividly reconstructed the inner workings of this extraordinary and secretive country.

follows the lives of six North Koreans over fifteen years—a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung, the unchallenged rise to power of his son Kim Jong-il, and the devastation of a far-ranging famine that killed one-fifth of the population.
Taking us into a landscape most of us have never before seen, award-winning journalist Barbara Demick brings to life what it means to be living under the most repressive totalitarian regime today—an Orwellian world that is by choice not connected to the Internet, in which radio and television dials are welded to the one government station, and where displays of affection are punished; a police state where informants are rewarded and where an offhand remark can send a person to the gulag for life.
Demick takes us deep inside the country, beyond the reach of government censors. Through meticulous and sensitive reporting, we see her six subjects—average North Korean citizens—fall in love, raise families, nurture ambitions, and struggle for survival. One by one, we experience the moments when they realize that their government has betrayed them.
is a groundbreaking addition to the literature of totalitarianism and an eye-opening look at a closed world that is of increasing global importance.

Logavina Street was a microcosm of Sarajevo, a six-block-long history lesson. For four centuries, it existed as a quiet residential area in a charming city long known for its ethnic and religious tolerance. On this street of 240 families, Muslims and Christians, Serbs and Croats lived easily together, unified by their common identity as Sarajevans. Then the war tore it all apart.

As she did in her groundbreaking work about North Korea, Nothing to Envy, award-winning journalist Barbara Demick tells the story of the Bosnian War and the brutal and devastating three-and-a-half-year siege of Sarajevo through the lives of ordinary citizens, who struggle with hunger, poverty, sniper fire, and shellings.

Logavina Street paints this misunderstood war and its effects in vivid strokes—at once epic and intimate—revealing the heroism, sorrow, resilience, and uncommon faith of its people.

With a new Introduction, final chapter, and Epilogue by the author

follows the lives of six North Koreans over fifteen years—a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung, the unchallenged rise to power of his son Kim Jong-il, and the devastation of a far-ranging famine that killed one-fifth of the population.
Taking us into a landscape most of us have never before seen, award-winning journalist Barbara Demick brings to life what it means to be living under the most repressive totalitarian regime today—an Orwellian world that is by choice not connected to the Internet, in which radio and television dials are welded to the one government station, and where displays of affection are punished; a police state where informants are rewarded and where an offhand remark can send a person to the gulag for life.
Demick takes us deep inside the country, beyond the reach of government censors. Through meticulous and sensitive reporting, we see her six subjects—average North Korean citizens—fall in love, raise families, nurture ambitions, and struggle for survival. One by one, we experience the moments when they realize that their government has betrayed them.
is a groundbreaking addition to the literature of totalitarianism and an eye-opening look at a closed world that is of increasing global importance.

follows the lives of six North Koreans over fifteen years—a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung, the unchallenged rise to power of his son Kim Jong-il, and the devastation of a far-ranging famine that killed one-fifth of the population.
Taking us into a landscape most of us have never before seen, award-winning journalist Barbara Demick brings to life what it means to be living under the most repressive totalitarian regime today—an Orwellian world that is by choice not connected to the Internet, in which radio and television dials are welded to the one government station, and where displays of affection are punished; a police state where informants are rewarded and where an offhand remark can send a person to the gulag for life.
Demick takes us deep inside the country, beyond the reach of government censors. Through meticulous and sensitive reporting, we see her six subjects—average North Korean citizens—fall in love, raise families, nurture ambitions, and struggle for survival. One by one, we experience the moments when they realize that their government has betrayed them.
is a groundbreaking addition to the literature of totalitarianism and an eye-opening look at a closed world that is of increasing global importance.

North Korea is Orwell's 1984 made reality: it is the only country in the world not connected to the internet; Gone with the Wind is a dangerous, banned book; during political rallies, spies study your expression to check your sincerity. After the death of the country's great leader Kim Il Sung in 1994, famine descended, and Nothing to Envy - winner of the 2010 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction - weaves together the stories of adversity and resilience of six residents of Chongin, North Korea's third-largest city. From extensive interviews and with tenacious investigative work, Barbara Demick has recreated the concerns, culture and lifestyles of North Korean citizens in a gripping narrative, and vividly reconstructed the inner workings of this extraordinary and secretive country.

Just as she did with North Korea, award-winning journalist Barbara Demick explores one of the most hidden corners of the world. She tells the story of a Tibetan town perched eleven thousand feet above sea level that is one of the most difficult places in all of China for foreigners to visit. Ngaba was one of the first places where the Tibetans and the Chinese Communists encountered one another. In the 1930s, Mao Zedong’s Red Army fled into the Tibetan plateau to escape their adversaries in the Chinese Civil War. By the time the soldiers reached Ngaba, they were so hungry that they looted monasteries and ate religious statues made of flour and butter—to Tibetans, it was as if they were eating the Buddha. Their experiences would make Ngaba one of the engines of Tibetan resistance for decades to come, culminating in shocking acts of self-immolation.

spans decades of modern Tibetan and Chinese history, as told through the private lives of Demick’s subjects, among them a princess whose family is wiped out during the Cultural Revolution, a young Tibetan nomad who becomes radicalized in the storied monastery of Kirti, an upwardly mobile entrepreneur who falls in love with a Chinese woman, a poet and intellectual who risks everything to voice his resistance, and a Tibetan schoolgirl forced to choose at an early age between her family and the elusive lure of Chinese money. All of them face the same dilemma: Do they resist the Chinese, or do they join them? Do they adhere to Buddhist teachings of compassion and nonviolence, or do they fight?

Illuminating a culture that has long been romanticized by Westerners as deeply spiritual and peaceful, Demick reveals what it is really like to be a Tibetan in the twenty-first century, trying to preserve one’s culture, faith, and language against the depredations of a seemingly unstoppable, technologically all-seeing superpower. Her depiction is nuanced, unvarnished, and at times shocking.

This book follows the long journey of correspondents who have passed through Korea.
Since the first of them, photographer Felice Beato, arrived in 1871 with American troops invading Kangwha Island, foreign journalists have puzzled over this land, as complicated and fascinating now as 135 years ago.
Famed author Jack London grappled with a blind horse. War reporters lived and died in sweltering heat and icy cold recording the horrors of the Korean War. Correspondents covered revolt and bloodshed in Gwangju, endured hours in the KCIA s dreaded interrogation center, and witnessed an assassination.
These and many more episodes, chronicled here, reflect the violence and vitality of the land of the morning calm.

A gripping portrait of modern Tibet told through the lives of its people, from the bestselling author of Nothing to Envy

“A brilliantly reported and eye-opening work of narrative nonfiction.”—The New York Times Book Review

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Parul Sehgal, The New York Times • The New York Times Book Review • The Washington Post • NPR • The Economist • Outside • Foreign Affairs

Just as she did with North Korea, award-winning journalist Barbara Demick explores one of the most hidden corners of the world. She tells the story of a Tibetan town perched eleven thousand feet above sea level that is one of the most difficult places in all of China for foreigners to visit. Ngaba was one of the first places where the Tibetans and the Chinese Communists encountered one another. In the 1930s, Mao Zedong’s Red Army fled into the Tibetan plateau to escape their adversaries in the Chinese Civil War. By the time the soldiers reached Ngaba, they were so hungry that they looted monasteries and ate religious statues made of flour and butter—to Tibetans, it was as if they were eating the Buddha. Their experiences would make Ngaba one of the engines of Tibetan resistance for decades to come, culminating in shocking acts of self-immolation. 
 
Eat the Buddha spans decades of modern Tibetan and Chinese history, as told through the private lives of Demick’s subjects, among them a princess whose family is wiped out during the Cultural Revolution, a young Tibetan nomad who becomes radicalized in the storied monastery of Kirti, an upwardly mobile entrepreneur who falls in love with a Chinese woman, a poet and intellectual who risks everything to voice his resistance, and a Tibetan schoolgirl forced to choose at an early age between her family and the elusive lure of Chinese money. All of them face the same dilemma: Do they resist the Chinese, or do they join them? Do they adhere to Buddhist teachings of compassion and nonviolence, or do they fight?
 
Illuminating a culture that has long been romanticized by Westerners as deeply spiritual and peaceful, Demick reveals what it is really like to be a Tibetan in the twenty-first century, trying to preserve one’s culture, faith, and language against the depredations of a seemingly unstoppable, technologically all-seeing superpower. Her depiction is nuanced, unvarnished, and at times shocking.

A gripping portrait of contemporary Tibet, from the bestselling author of Nothing to Envy. In the 1930s Mao’s Red Army fled to the Tibetan plateau to escape their adversaries in the Chinese Civil War. By the time the soldiers reached remote Ngaba, they were so hungry that they looted monasteries and ate religious statues made of flour and butter—to Tibetans, it was as if they were eating the Buddha. These experiences would make the town a hotbed of Tibetan resistance for decades to come, culminating in shocking acts of self-immolation in recent years. Eat the Buddha chronicles the tragic history of modern Tibet through the lives of award-winning journalist Barbara Demick’s subjects. Among them are a princess whose family is wiped out during the Cultural Revolution, a young nomad who becomes radicalised in a monastery, and a schoolgirl forced to choose between her family and the lure of Chinese money. Illuminating a society long romanticised as deeply spiritual, Demick reveals what it is like to be Tibetan today, trying to preserve one’s culture, faith and language against the depredations of a seemingly unstoppable, all-seeing superpower.

A gripping portrait of contemporary Tibet, from the bestselling author of Nothing to Envy. In the 1930s Mao’s Red Army fled to the Tibetan plateau to escape their adversaries in the Chinese Civil War. By the time the soldiers reached remote Ngaba, they were so hungry that they looted monasteries and ate religious statues made of flour and butter—to Tibetans, it was as if they were eating the Buddha. These experiences would make the town a hotbed of Tibetan resistance for decades to come, culminating in shocking acts of self-immolation in recent years. Eat the Buddha chronicles the tragic history of modern Tibet through the lives of award-winning journalist Barbara Demick’s subjects. Among them are a princess whose family is wiped out during the Cultural Revolution, a young nomad who becomes radicalised in a monastery, and a schoolgirl forced to choose between her family and the lure of Chinese money. Illuminating a society long romanticised as deeply spiritual, Demick reveals what it is like to be Tibetan today, trying to preserve one’s culture, faith and language against the depredations of a seemingly unstoppable, all-seeing superpower.
Barbara Demick is the author of Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and Logavina Street: Life and Death in a Sarajevo Neighborhood. She was a reporter with the Los Angeles Times and headed the paper’s bureaus in Beijing and Seoul. Her work has won many awards, including the Samuel Johnson Prize (now the Baillie Gifford Prize) in the United Kingdom. She lives in New York City. ‘Deeply and meticulously researched, Eat the Buddha tells the story of the beautiful area of eastern Tibet, land of the fabled Mei kingdom, where the Tibetan people have thrived in a majestic environment for several millennia, only to suffer horrifically in the last seventy years with the invasion and colonization by the Communist Chinese. Demick is to be given highest honors for her unflinching account, and her readers will be rewarded with a transformative encounter with the real lives of some extraordinary people.’ Robert A. F. Thurman, Jey Tsong Khapa Professor Emeritus, Columbia University

In the last decade of the 20th century, in a capital city in Europe, the unimaginable is happening.
Take a walk down Sarajevo's Logavina Street with Barbara Demick, author of the prize-winning Nothing to Ordinary Lives in North Korea. Demick spent much  of 1993 through 1995 on one street in the Bosnian capital with a front-row seat as a country was torn apart by ethnic warfare and a modern city was held under siege. She watched and recorded as neighbors, Muslim, Serb and Croat, tried to keep their society intact against the forces of intolerance. In Logavina Life and Death in a Sarajevo Neighborhood, meet a teenager whose parents were killed by a mortar shell in front of her, a dentist debating whether to emigrate to America, a besotted husband separated from his wife by war, obsessing about her lipstick color. Demick's coverage of the Bosnian war won the Robert F. Kennedy award  for international reporting, the Polk award for international reporting and was a finalist for the Pulitzer.

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS’ CHOICE • The heartrending story of twin sisters torn apart by China’s one-child policy and the rise of international adoption—from the author of the National Book Award finalist Nothing to Envy

“Remarkable . . . Barbara Demick movingly traces this history of overseas Chinese adoptions and their ripple effects on both sides of the Pacific.”—The Wall Street Journal

On a warm day in September 2000, a woman named Zanhua gave birth to twin girls in a small hut behind her brother’s home in China’s Hunan province. The twins, Fangfang and Shuangjie, were welcome additions to her family but also not her first children. Living under the shadow of China’s notorious one-child policy, Zanhua and her husband decided to leave one twin in the care of relatives, hoping each toddler on their own might stay under the radar. But, in 2002, Fangfang was violently snatched away. The family worried they would never see her again, but they didn’t imagine she could be sent as far as the United States. She might as well have been sent to another world.

Following stories she wrote as the Beijing bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times, Barbara Demick embarks on a journey that encompasses the origins, shocking cruelty, and long-term impact of China’s one-child rule; the rise of international adoption and the religious currents that buoyed it; and the exceedingly rare phenomenon of twin separation. Today, Esther—formerly Fangfang—lives in Texas, and Demick brings to vivid life the Christian family that felt called to adopt her, unaware that she had been kidnapped. Through Demick’s indefatigable reporting, will the long-lost sisters finally reunite—and will they feel whole again?

A remarkable window into the volatile, constantly changing China of the last half century and the long-reaching legacy of the country’s most infamous law, Daughters of the Bamboo Grove is also the moving story of two sisters torn apart by the forces of history and brought together again by their families’ determination and one reporter’s dogged work.

“Excellent . . . entrancing and disturbing . . . [Demick] is one of our finest chroniclers of East Asia. . . . [Her] characters are richly drawn, and her stories, often reported over a span of years, deliver a rare emotional wallop.”—The New York Times

In 2000, a Chinese woman gave birth to twins in a bamboo grove, trying to avoid detection by the government because she already had two daughters. Two years later, an American couple travelled to Shaoyang to adopt a Chinese toddler they thought had been abandoned.

Their understanding had been that China's brutal one-child policy was leading to hundreds of abandoned girls, desperate for the care of adopted parents. What they didn't know - and what award-winning journalist Barbara Demick uncovered in 2007, while working as a correspondent in Beijing - was that their daughter had been snatched from her beloved family and her identical twin. Under China's one-child policy hundreds of poor Chinese were giving up their children due to soaring fines and threats of violence. More sinister still, international demand for adoptees was sky-rocketing, and local officials were forcibly seizing children and trafficking them to orphanages, who were selling them abroad.

Daughters of the Bamboo Grove tells the gripping story of separated twins, their respective fates in China and the USA, and Barbara Demick's role in reuniting them against huge odds. Painting a rich portrait of China's history and culture, it asks questions about the roots, impact and consequences of China's one-child policy, the ethics of international adoption, and, ultimately, the assumptions and narratives we hold about the quality of lives lived in the East and the West.