“This is a book that could easily founder under the weight of its subject matter. Neither inviting nor shying away from modern-day parallels, Han neatly unpacks the social and political catalysts behind the massacre and maps its lengthy, toxic fallout. But what is remarkable is how she accomplishes this while still making it a novel of blood and bone … By choosing the novel as her form, then allowing it to do what it does best – take readers to the very centre of a life that is not their own – Han prepares us for one of the most important questions of our times: ‘What is humanity? What do we have to do to keep humanity as one thing and not another?’ She never answers, but this act of unflinching witness seems as good a place to start as any.”
–Eimear McBride, The Guardian, February 13, 2016
