"This is a powerful, moving, at times  shocking account of three generations of Chinese women,  as compelling as Amy Tan." --Mary Morris. "An evocative, often astonishing view of life in a  changing China." -- The New York  Times In Wild Swans Jung Chang recounts the evocative, unsettling, and insistently gripping story of how three generations of women in her family fared in the political maelstrom of China during the 20th century. Chang's grandmother was a warlord's concubine. Her gently raised mother struggled with hardships in the early days of Mao's revolution and rose, like her husband, to a prominent position in the Communist Party before being denounced during the Cultural Revolution. Chang herself marched, worked, and breathed for Mao until doubt crept in over the excesses of his policies and purges. Born just a few decades apart, their lives overlap with the end of the warlords' regime and overthrow of the Japanese occupation, violent struggles between the Kuomintang and the Communists to carve up China, and, most poignant for the author, the vicious cycle of purges orchestrated by Chairman Mao that discredited and crushed millions of people, including her parents. Jung Chang's autobiography tells recent Chinese history from a personal perspective. Jung's grandmother was a concubine with bound feet who saw the father of her only child three times in ten years. Her child, Jung's mother, grew up to be a passionate, committed Communist, who married one of Mao's most ardent supporters. Jung's father always put the party before the family: he once sent his mother-in-law away after she had walked hundreds of miles to be with them because he felt feeding her would be taking advantage of his position. Jung grew up with the belief that Mao was the savior of China; because of him she had adequate living quarters, enough food and a good education. As the momentum of the Cultural Revolution grew, school changed from learning to memorizing every word Mao said, and personal vendettas were settled by betrayals. "The whole of China was like a prison. Every house, every street was watched by the people themselves. In this vast land, there was nowhere anyone could hide." Jung's parents and countless others suffered a myriad of attacks that included denouncements, beatings, and labor camps. Many people were killed or died spiritually at the hands of Mao, a man who: "... created a moral wasteland and a land of hatred." Jung Chang survived, and with her life story shares her confusion, tears, and triumphs in a world seemingly gone mad. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14 . -- From 500 Great Books by Women ; review by Holly Smith "This is a powerful, moving, at times shocking account of three generations of Chinese women, as compelling as Amy Tan." --Mary Morris. "An evocative, often astonishing view of life in a changing China." -- The New York Times "This is a powerful, moving, at times  shocking account of three generations of Chinese women,  as compelling as Amy Tan." --Mary Morris. "An evocative, often astonishing view of life in a  changing China." -- The New York  Times