Daughters of the Bamboo Grove

WINNER OF THE SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION A spectacular, definitive portrait of ordinary life within one of the world's most repressive states - North Korea. 'A most perceptive and eye-opening account of everyday life in North Korea' Jung Chang North Korea is Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four made reality: it is the only country in the world not connected to the internet; where Gone with the Wind is a dangerous, banned book; and where during political rallies, spies study your expression to check your sincerity. 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. Includes an updated afterword by the author. 'Impossible to put down ... helps restore humanity to some of the world's most oppressed people' Observer

Adoption, Menschenhandel und die Suche nach Gerechtigkeit zwischen China und den USA: Die neue Reportage der renommierten und vielfach ausgezeichneten US-Journalistin Barbara DemickWeit über die Grenzen Chinas hinaus ist die sogenannte 'Ein-Kind-Politik' berüchtigt. Nachdem sie 2016 offiziell beendet wurde, zeigen sich längst die Nachwirkungen dieser Strategie zur Eindämmung des Bevölkerungswachstums.Barbara Demicks Reportage erzählt die Geschichte der chinesischen Zwillinge Fangfang und Shuangjie, geboren 2000. Sie sind nicht die ersten Kinder ihrer Eltern und deshalb ein Dorn im Auge der Behörden. Doch der Versuch, die Zwillinge vor dem Staat zu schützen, scheitert. Fangfang wird ihrer Familie entrissen und zur Adoption freigegeben. Von einer christlichen Familie aufgenommen, wächst sie unter dem Namen Esther in Texas auf ¿ unwissend, entführt worden zu sein.'Overseas adoption wasn't publicized inside China. To many Chinese, the idea that a baby had gone to the United States was as preposterous as if she had gone to Mars.' (Barbara Demick, The New Yorker)Wird Demicks unermüdliche aktivistische Arbeit die getrennten Zwillinge wieder zusammenbringen? Und werden sie sich wieder als die Schwestern fühlen, die sie einmal gewesen sind? Eine große Reportage über eine folgenschwere, grausame Politik und welche Auswirkungen sie auf die chinesische Bevölkerung und unzählige Adoptivfamilien hat.'Demick's characters are richly drawn, and her stories, often reported over a span of years, deliver a rare emotional wallop.' (Kevin Peraino, The New York Times)Barbara Demick ist eine renommierte und vielfach ausgezeichnete Journalistin und Autorin. Als Fernostkorrespondentin der Los Angeles Times, unter anderem in Peking, erhielt sie einzigartige Einblicke in die chinesische Gesellschaft und ihr Leid unter den gefürchteten Familienplanungsbehörden.'Chinas entführte Töchter' ist Barbara Demicks viertes Buch bei Droemer, bereits erschienen sind 'Buddhas vergessene Kinder' (2021), 'Im Land des Flüsterns' (2016) und 'Die Rosen von Sarajevo' (2012).Die Originalausgabe steht auf der Shortlist des National Book Critics Circle Award in der Kategorie Nonfiction. Für den Women's Prize for Non-Fiction ist die britische Ausgabe auf der Longlist.

WINNER OF THE SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION A spectacular, definitive portrait of ordinary life within one of the world's most repressive states - North Korea. 'A most perceptive and eye-opening account of everyday life in North Korea' Jung Chang North Korea is Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four made reality: it is the only country in the world not connected to the internet; where Gone with the Wind is a dangerous, banned book; and where during political rallies, spies study your expression to check your sincerity. 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. Includes an updated afterword by the author. 'Impossible to put down... Helps restore humanity to some of the world's most oppressed people' Observer

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITINGLONGLISTED FOR THE 2020 BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTIONONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR IN FINANCIAL TIMES, ECONOMIST, NEW YORK TIMES, WASHINGTON POST, SPECTATOR 'You simply cannot understand China without reading Barbara Demick on Tibet' Evan Osnos, author of Age of Ambition In 1950, China claimed sovereignty over Tibet, leading to decades of unrest and resistance. Barbara Demick chronicles the Tibetan tragedy from Ngaba, a defiant town on the eastern edge of the Tibetan plateau. From the stories of Ngaba's last princess and those who experienced the struggle sessions of Mao's revolution to the experiences of today's monks and townsfolk suffering repression under China's rule, Demick paints a riveting portrait of Tibet past and present as it fights for its identity against one of the most powerful countries in the world.

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.