I’ve read a sizable number of books set during the upheavals of Maoist of China - historical works, memoirs, and historical fiction titles. But until now, I had never read any works that took place anywhere close to the Tibetan regions of the country, which in immediate retrospect should be of very little surprise considering it’s not exactly a tale that certain people and powers want easily told and heard, to understate the situation just a bit. So, the simple fact that a work like “The Red Wind Howls” is actually now readily available as an officially translated and published work frankly feels nothing short of amazing.

I wasn’t even finished with this work before I already decided that this was definitely a new must-have for the academic library that I work. Due to it being based on both archival materials and interviews that author Tsering Dondrup courageously gathered from those who endured the hardships described in these pages, “The Red Wind Howls” is far more than a new world for avid historical fiction readers like myself to dive into. By providing my first glance (and almost a firsthand glance given the source material) into this part of Tibet at this time, I found the book to be a genuine learning experience.