(amaz.rev) Jung Chang's ' Wild Swans"

by Jung Chang, the prof. of Chinese studies from London. Her novel, is 5-star rated in amazon. Account of china in 20 th century and Mao's atrocities. Here's amaz review.
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Bursting with drama, heartbreak and horror, this extraordinary family portrait mirrors China's century of turbulence. Chang's grandmother, Yu-fang, had her feet bound at age two and in 1924 was sold as a concubine to Beijing's police chief. Yu-fang escaped slavery in a brothel by fleeing her "husband" with her infant daughter, Bao Qin, Chang's mother-to-be. Growing up during Japan's brutal occupation, free-spirited Bao Qin chose the man she would marry, a Communist Party official slavishly devoted to the revolution. In 1949, while he drove 1000 miles in a jeep to the southwestern province where they would do Mao's spadework, Bao Qin walked alongside the vehicle, sick and pregnant (she lost the child). Chang, born in 1952, saw her mother put into a detention camp in the Cultural Revolution and later "rehabilitated." Her father was denounced and publicly humiliated; his mind snapped, and he died a broken man in 1975. Working as a "barefoot doctor" with no training, Chang saw the oppressive, inhuman side of communism. She left China in 1978 and is now director of Chinese studies at London University. Her meticulous, transparent prose radiates an inner strength. Photos. BOMC alternate.
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Here's the full link :

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0743246985/qid=1123399272/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/104-6362632-0334313?v=glance&s=books

.........and here, you can read a few first pages of the book ...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0743246985/ref=sib_fs_top/104-6362632-0334313?%5Fencoding=UTF8&p=S013&checkSum=yq0piVXsz8f6VZd43UrGdzcD0RLgsL0M9yCaQ072qQo%3D#reader-page

She wrote another book, in collaboration with Jon Halliday, titled, " mao, the unknown story :" and their attention to meticulous detail and plethora of footnotes, got rave reviews from critics.