Fly, Wild Swans

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

THE LONG-AWAITED SEQUEL TO WILD SWANS, THE MULTI-MILLION COPY INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING SENSATION

A Book of the Year in The Times; Daily Telegraph; Financial Times and Waterstones

'A must-read ⦠magnificentâ DAILY TELEGRAPH *****

'Beautiful and moving' ELIF SHAFAK, OBSERVER

Jung Changâs Wild Swans was a book that defined a generation, an epic personal history of Jung, her mother and grandmother â" âthree daughters of Chinaâ. The book opens in 1909 with her grandmotherâs birth â" and foot-binding â" when China was under the last emperor, moving through Mao Zedongâs rule, especially the Cultural Revolution during which Jungâs parents were subjected to horrendous ordeals because of their courage. It finishes in 1978 when Deng Xiaoping officially ended the Mao era and started the âreformsâ. Jung, at that propitious juncture, became one of the first Chinese to leave Communist China for the West.

Nearly half a century on, China has risen from a decrepit and isolated state to a global power, the challenger to the United Statesâ dominant position in the world. Through those decades, Jungâs life has been intimately entwined with her native land. Her experiences dealing with the regime in those years were rich and revealing â" especially so because all her books were (and are) banned.

Fly, Wild Swans is the follow-up to Wild Swans and brings the story of Jungâs family â" along with that of China â" up to date. The book is in many ways Jungâs love letter to her mother. It is inevitably also about her grandmother and father, both of whom died tragically in the Cultural Revolution but are often recalled in this book. In fact, the past is never far away in Jungâs subsequent life. It has shaped her, and moulded the present China, and whatâs more, it promises to herald the future.

China is now at another watershed moment with the era of Chairman Xi Jinping greatly affecting the lives of Jung and her mother. Fly, Wild Swans is Jungâs heartfelt response to that experience, and a book filled with drama, love, curiosity and incredible history â" both personal and global. Ultimately uplifting, told in Jungâs clear, honest and compelling voice, it is memoir writing at its best.

'Profoundly revealing as a portrait both of a family and of the deeper traumas that lie at the heart of modern China' RORY STEWART

'Another wonder book from Jung Changâ¦I am quite blown away by it' LADY ANTONIA FRASER