Red Azalea

Red Azalea
By Anchee Min

This is an extraordinary book. I'd never heard of it and to be honest I picked it out at the library because it's a small paperback and was the only book on the shelf I was standing next to that would fit in my bag.

It is the story of the author’s childhood in China under the Maoist regime. I had to keep reminding myself that it’s an autobiography because it reads like a novel. Min’s story is about growing up, but this universal and familiar human experience is set in a time and place that for most readers is simply unimaginable. This is a book that I won’t soon forget and I highly recommend it.