Description

Ha Jin’s wonderful new novel casts a searchlight right into a forgotten corner of modern history, the knowledge of Chinese soldiers held in U.S. POW camps throughout the Korean Conflict. In 1951 Yu Yuan, a scholarly and self effacing clerical officer in Mao’s “volunteer” army, is taken prisoner south of the 38th Parallel. Since he speaks English, he quickly becomes an intermediary between his compatriots and their National captors.With Yuan as manual, we're brought in to the secret world behind the barbed-wire, a world where kindness alternates with stunning cruelty and you have definitely more to dread from one’s other criminals than from the pads.