Jonathan Mirsky
He Fought the Law
The Barefoot Lawyer: The Remarkable Memoir of China’s Bravest Political Activist
By Chen Guangcheng (Translated by Danica Mills)
Macmillan 330pp £20 order from our bookshop
Here is China down and dirty, a side of the country rarely, if ever, experienced by foreigners, no matter how knowledgeable or fluent in the language they are. What Chen Guangcheng shows, as only a Chinese peasant can – though no other has, at least in English – is what life continues to be like in rural China, where 80 per cent of Chinese live, and what life is like for anyone who challenges the Communist Party.
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
My essay on Microstates, Money Secrets & Morality Tales is out in newsagents now, and begins with @quadererer's new Liechtenstein novel @IMLR_News @newgermanbooks https://literaryreview.co.uk/microstates-money-secrets-morality-tales via @Lit_Review
I'm against RTing praise, except when it's about me. "Wonderfully original in its approach ... one of the most stimulating books on birds I’ve read in some while". Nigel Andrew in the @Lit_Review, on AN INDIFFERENCE OF BIRDS. https://literaryreview.co.uk/thirteen-ways-of-looking-at-a-gyrfalcon
'It might seem like a form of responsible cautiousness, but really it’s a bet against the rest of us; preppers don’t just want to come out the other side, they want to come out ahead.'
@WillWiles on @Goblinmerchant's 'Bunker'.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/deceptively-bright-in-an-up-coming-area