Sky Burial - by Xinran (Paperback)

About the Book

Determined to find out what happened to her husband, Shu Wen joins his regiment, is taken hostage, and embarks on a life-changing journey through the Tibetan countryside--a journey that will last 20 years and lead her to a deep appreciation of Tibet in all its beauty and brutality.

Book Synopsis

It was 1994 when Xinran, a journalist and the internationally acclaimed author of The Good Women of China, received a telephone call asking her to travel four hours to meet a woman who had just crossed the border from Tibet into China.

Xinran made the trip and met the woman, called Shu Wen, who recounted the story of her thirty-year odyssey in the vast landscape of Tibet. In Sky Burial, Xinran has re-created Shu Wen's journey, painting an extraordinary portrait of a woman and a land, each at the mercy of fate and politics. It is an unforgettable, ultimately uplifting tale of love, loss, loyalty, and survival.

Review Quotes

"Remarkable. . . . Heartwrenching from beginning to end." -The New York Times Book Review"Shu Wen's remarkable story is simply told. . . . Her actions speak volumes." -San Francisco Chronicle"This story of one extraordinary woman written by another extraordinary woman will stay with you long after closing the book." -The Sunday Times (London)"Lyrical. . . . Illuminates a largely inaccessible country's hardy people, its communal, religious spirit, and its continuing political struggles with its Communist neighbor." -Entertainment Weekly"An unexpected joy. . . . This remarkable novel is an extraordinary tale that is fast-paced and packs quite the emotional punch." -Tucson Citizen"Xinran tells the story with spare elegance, doing particular justice to the awesome emptiness and silence of Tibet.... The text paints Tibet as outside time and politics, an elemental backdrop for musing on love everlasting and noble suffering."-The Globe and MailPraise for Xinran's The Good Women of China "Remarkably evocative, bursting with details that make each account haunting. These stories have all the force of good fiction."--The Washington Post"The Good Women of China is delicate, beautiful, low-key and devastating."--Toronto Star

About the Author

Xinran is the author of The Good Women of China, a seminal work about the lives of Chinese women. She was born in Beijing in 1958, and by the late 1980s had become a successful Chinese journalist. In 1997 she moved to London, where she currently writes a regular column in The Guardian.