WINNER OF THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE
'A gripping and masterful portrait of the brutal court of Mao, based
on new research but also written with great narrative verve' Simon
Sebag Montefiore
'Harrowing and brilliant' Ben Macintyre
'A critical contribution to Chinese history' Wall Street Journal
Between 1958 and 1962, 45 million Chinese people were worked, starved or
beaten to death.
Mao Zedong threw his country into a frenzy with the Great Leap Forward,
an attempt to catch up with and overtake the West in less than fifteen
years. It led to one of the greatest catastrophes the world has ever
known.
Dikotter's extraordinary research within Chinese archives brings
together for the first time what happened in the corridors of power with
the everyday experiences of ordinary people, giving voice to the dead
and disenfranchised. This groundbreaking account definitively recasts
the history of the People's Republic of China.