Maura Elizabeth Cunningham

I’ve just published a new book review at the Wall Street Journal, about Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: From China to America, a True Story of Abduction, Adoption, and Separated Twins, by journalist Barbara Demick:

“You’re not allowed to keep this child,” a Family Planning official informed Xiuhua. Another man held her wailing 21-month-old niece, Fangfang, the toddler reaching out for the only mother she had ever known. The group of men had caught Xiuhua off-guard moments earlier when they burst into the house and restrained her while they grabbed Fangfang. A group of neighbors heard the commotion and came running, attempting to assist Xiuhua as she pursued the departing officials, but they couldn’t keep up with the car driving away from the village. On that steamy early spring day in 2002, Fangfang disappeared into China’s indomitable child-welfare system. KEEP READING

Before picking up her latest book, I took the opportunity to (re)read Demick’s previous ones and write a short Goodreads review for each. Considering all four of her books at once confirmed to me that Demick is one of the best narrative non-fiction writers working today. As you can probably tell from each book’s subtitle, her chief interest is in how headline events play out in the lives of ordinary people. Daughters of the Bamboo Grove is somewhat different—Demick herself is more of a presence, and she discusses how this story was an unusually personal one for a journalist—but her reporting is just as solid and her writing just as compelling as in her other books.

Featured Image: Bamboo grove, by Anonymous. Photo via Wikimedia, used under a Creative Commons license.