A grueling, heartbreaking, horrifying read, though not without hope or moments of relief. The story of the lives of three women in 20th century China. The first is daughter to a warlord and made into a concubine. In an astonishing act, this woman who has been oppressed, repressed, isolated, miseducated and who had her feet bound in a brutal and ugly tradition, flees with her daughter and this pretty much sets the tone of the human spirit surviving through appalling adversity. Through the fall of Kuomintang and the rise of Communism, the family survives and even thrives. The daughter becomes a Communist official and marries another, but the insane reign of Mao Tse Tung that will cost millions their lives through arrant, horrifying stupidity and evil is just beginning. as a portrait of a family in the time of Mao Wild Swans is riveting, if at times difficult reading. A whole nation dragged back to ignorance and fear by one man's monstrous ego - all too common in the history of the 20th century, but rarely in such an effective fashion, where there was no secret police -the people were made to police themselves. Utterly chilling, but brilliantly written. It's the sheer epic scale of the waste that makes the blood boil, though.