A pertinent plea against tyranny and an emotional reflection on the need to write in order to remember.
A Chinese dissident writer in exile remains hopeful that writing the truth, in spite of official oppression, can topple dictatorship.
Imprisoned in 1990 for four years in China for performing two protest poems that “railed against and condemned the Tiananmen massacre,” Liao Yiwu has committed his life to fighting against the Chinese government’s widespread oppression. He continued to write when he was released, hounded by the Chinese police, who confiscated his work. In 2011, he was compelled to defect to Germany in order “to publish the writings I’d started in prison.” In exile, he has been able to have much of his clandestine work published—e.g., his hidden prison diary, For a Song and a Hundred Songs, and other books. In this moving speech, written in late 2022 when China suddenly reversed its restrictive Covid-19 lockdown, Liao expresses his determination to keep fighting despite setbacks and ill health. “I indefatigably record all of this to remind the world, and myself, because I worry that if I succumb to nihilism and lay down my pen, I will have failed absolutely,” he writes. The author is haunted by those who have perished with no name or record of their protests, such as “Old Man Yang,” who had been imprisoned for decades “in the bottomless black hole the Communist Party had created” and who offered to hide the author’s papers in prison. It’s clear that Liao is tormented about how he could not save his fellow dissidents. In his “documentary novel” Wuhan, the author exposed the government’s duplicity regarding the closing of Wuhan and other cities during the pandemic, noting how “Xi Jinping’s empire surpassed 1984,” and he writes eloquently in support of the Shanghai protests in 2022.
A pertinent plea against tyranny and an emotional reflection on the need to write in order to remember.Pub Date: June 26, 2024
ISBN: 9781509562947
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Polity
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
A compelling, often chilling look inside today’s version of the Gulag.
The WNBA star recounts her imprisonment by the Putin regime.
“My horror begins in a land I thought I knew, on a trip I wish I hadn’t taken,” writes Griner. She had traveled to Russia before, playing basketball for the Yekaterinburg franchise of the Russian league during the WNBA’s off-season, but on this winter day in 2022, she was pulled aside at the Moscow airport and subjected to an unexpected search that turned up medically prescribed cannabis oil. As the author notes, at home in Arizona, cannabis is legal, but not in Russia. After initial interrogation—“They seemed determined to get me to admit I was a smuggler, some undercover drug lord supplying half the country”—she was bundled off to await a show trial that was months in coming. With great self-awareness, the author chronicles the differences between being Black and gay in America and in Russia. “When you’re in a system with no true justice,” she writes, “you’re also in a system with a bunch of gray areas.” Unfortunately, despite a skilled Russian lawyer on her side, Griner had trouble getting to those gray areas, precisely because, with rising tensions between the U.S. and Russia following the invasion of Ukraine, Putin’s people seemed intent on making an example of her. Between spells in labor camps, jails, and psych wards, the author became a careful observer of the Russian penal system and its horrors. Navigating that system proved exhausting; since her release following an exchange for an imprisoned Russian arms dealer (about which the author offers a le Carré–worthy account of the encounter in Abu Dhabi), she has been suffering from PTSD. That struggle has invigorated her, though, in her determination to free other unjustly imprisoned Americans, a plea for which closes the book.
A compelling, often chilling look inside today’s version of the Gulag.Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9780593801345
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 7, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
A heartwarming and inspiring story for animal lovers.
The third volume in the Elephant Whisperer series.
In this follow-up to An Elephant in My Kitchen, Malby-Anthony continues her loving portrait of the Thula Thula wildlife reserve, which she co-founded in 1998 with her late husband, South African conservationist Lawrence Anthony, who published the first book in the series, The Elephant Whisperer, in 2009. Following his death in 2012, Malby-Anthony sought to honor his legacy by continuing his vision “to create a massive conservancy in Zululand, incorporating our land and other small farms and community land into one great big game park.” At the same time, the elephants gave her “a sense of purpose and direction.” In the Zulu language, thula means quiet, and though the author consistently seeks to provide that calm to her charges, peace and tranquility are not always easy to come by at Thula Thula. In this installment, Malby-Anthony discusses many of the challenges faced by her and her staff, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic. These included an aggressive, 2-ton rhino named Thabo; the profound loss felt by all upon the death of their elephant matriarch, Frankie; difficulty obtaining permits and the related risk of having to relocate or cull some of their animals; the fear of looting and fire due to civil unrest in the region; and the ongoing and potentially deadly struggles with poachers. Throughout, the author also shares many warm, lighthearted moments, demonstrating the deep bond felt among the humans and animals at the reserve and the powerful effects of the kindness of strangers. “We are all working in unity for the greater good, for the betterment of Thula Thula and all our wildlife….We are humbled by the generosity and love, both from our guests and friends, and from strangers all around the world,” writes the author. “People’s open-hearted support kept us alive in the darkest times.”
A heartwarming and inspiring story for animal lovers.Pub Date: April 25, 2023
ISBN: 9781250284259
Page Count: 320
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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