"Since Ha Jin won the National Book Award for Waiting, his writing keeps opening up like a big, beautiful fan; this book sounds as far-reaching as anything he has ever written, and even bolder about looking into the last century's heart of darkness."
-Library Journal
"Ha Jin describes horrible acts in a style bordering on reportage, lending bitter realism to his chronicle of violence and privation... [He] paints a convincing, harrowing portrait of heroism in the face of brutality."
-Publishers Weekly
"Ha Jin continues his scrupulous excavation of buried truths about Writing with unnerving austerity, [he]
Chinese life
resolutely addresses inexplicable terror and miraculous resistance.
-Booklist, starred review