"From an award-winning journalist for "The Washington Post" and one of the leading China correspondents of his generation comes an eloquent and vivid chronicle of the world's most successful authoritarian state -- a nation undergoing a remarkable transformation.Philip P. Pan's groundbreaking book takes us inside the dramatic battle for China's soul and into the lives of individuals struggling to come to terms with their nation's past -- the turmoil and trauma of Mao's rule -- and to take control of its future. Capitalism has brought prosperity and global respect to China, but the Communist government continues to resist the demands of its people for political freedom.
Pan, who reported in China for the "Post" for seven years and speaks fluent Chinese, eluded the police and succeeded in going where few Western journalists have dared.
From the rusting factories in the industrial northeast to a tabloid newsroom in the booming south, from a small-town courtroom to the plush offices of the nation's wealthiest tycoons, he tells the gripping stories of ordinary men and women fighting for political change. An elderly surgeon exposes the government's cover-up of the SARS epidemic. A filmmaker investigates the execution of a young woman during the Cultural Revolution. A blind man is jailed for leading a crusade against forced abortions carried out under the one-child policy.
The young people who filled Tiananmen Square in the spring of 1989 saw their hopes for a democratic China crushed in a massacre, but Pan reveals that as older, more pragmatic adults, many continue to push for justice in different ways. They are survivors whose families endured one of the world's deadliest famines during the Great Leap Forward, whose idealism was exploited during the madness of the Cultural Revolution, and whose values have been tested by the booming economy and the rush to get rich."
**Please note: As of 5/25, all copies of Out Of Mao's Shadow had been checked out of the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monnouth County Library. Please contact them at 732-291-1956 or stop by to let them know you would like to be put on the waiting list. If you already have a copy, please return it to the Library asap so those on the waiting list have a chance to get a copy and read the novel before we meet this month.**
Click here to be brought to the official website for Out Of Mao's Shadow. (Spoilers may be possible). You can also find an author bio via this site.
We'll meet to discuss Out of Mao's Shadow on Thursday, June 27, 2013, at 7pm, at the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monmouth County Library, located at 100 First Avenue, inside Borough Hall.
