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Tahir Hamut Izgil (Author) Tahir Hamut Izgil is one of the foremost poets writing in the Uyghur language. He grew up in Kashgar, an ancient city in the southwest of the Uyghur homeland. After attending college in Beijing, he returned to the Uyghur region and emerged as a prominent film director. His poetry has appeared, in Joshua L. Freeman's English translation, in the New York Review of Books, Asymptote, Gulf Coast, and Berkeley Poetry Review, and have also been extensively translated into Chinese, Japanese, and Turkish. In 2017, as the Chinese state began the mass internment of the Uyghur people, Izgil fled with his family to the United States. He lives near Washington, D.C. Joshua L. Freeman (Translator) Joshua L. Freeman is a historian of modern China and the leading translator of Uyghur poetry into English. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Princeton Society of Fellows and a lecturer in Princeton's East Asian Studies Department. His writing has appeared in the New York Review of Books, New York Times and Times Literary Supplement, and his translations have appeared in the Atlantic, Guardian and New Statesman.
To call this merely 'a good book' is an understatement - it is essential reading. -- Ai Weiwei Elegiac and deeply courageous, a most powerful literary indictment of the unfettered power of the state. A remarkable book. -- Philippe Sands, author of East West Street A terrifying, compelling read of one family's efforts to escape the jaws that were closing around them and millions of others in China's far western region of Xinjiang. -- Ian Johnson Even if we can't comprehend why this tragedy is happening in Xinjiang, Tahir Hamut Izgil reminds us why it matters -- Peter Hessler, author of RIVER TOWN Tahir Hamut Izgil's powerful and poignant memoir is an instant classic. He lays bare the vicious genocidal persecution of the precious Uyghur people in a very personal and persuasive way. His grand poetic temperament exemplifies the unstoppable resilience of the rich Uyghur soul. -- Cornel West, author of Democracy Matters
