Sky Burial: An Epic Love Story of Tibet [Paperback]

Xinran Xinran (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 8, 2006

It was 1994 when Xinran, a journalist and the internationally acclaimed author of The Good Women of China, received a telephone call asking her to travel four hours to meet a woman who had just crossed the border from Tibet into China.

Xinran made the trip and met the woman, called Shu Wen, who recounted the story of her thirty-year odyssey in the vast landscape of Tibet. In Sky Burial, Xinran has re-created Shu Wen’s journey, painting an extraordinary portrait of a woman and a land, each at the mercy of fate and politics. It is an unforgettable, ultimately uplifting tale of love, loss, loyalty, and survival.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Remarkable. . . . Heartwrenching from beginning to end.” –The New York Times Book Review“Shu Wen’s remarkable story is simply told. . . . Her actions speak volumes.” –San Francisco Chronicle“This story of one extraordinary woman written by another extraordinary woman will stay with you long after closing the book.” –The Sunday Times (London)“Lyrical. . . . Illuminates a largely inaccessible country’s hardy people, its communal, religious spirit, and its continuing political struggles with its Communist neighbor.” –Entertainment Weekly“An unexpected joy. . . . This remarkable novel is an extraordinary tale that is fast-paced and packs quite the emotional punch.” –Tucson Citizen“Xinran tells the story with spare elegance, doing particular justice to the awesome emptiness and silence of Tibet…. The text paints Tibet as outside time and politics, an elemental backdrop for musing on love everlasting and noble suffering.”–The Globe and MailPraise for Xinran’s The Good Women of China:“Remarkably evocative, bursting with details that make each account haunting. These stories have all the force of good fiction.”—The Washington Post“The Good Women of China is delicate, beautiful, low-key and devastating.”—Toronto Star

About the Author

Xinran is the author of The Good Women of China, a seminal work about the lives of Chinese women. She was born in Beijing in 1958, and by the late 1980s had become a successful Chinese journalist. In 1997 she moved to London, where she currently writes a regular column in The Guardian.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Anchor (August 8, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400095646
• ISBN-13: 978-1400095643
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.6 x 7.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #174,060 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #12 in Books > Travel > Asia > Tibet

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing tale of friendship, vast lands and sorrow, May 19, 2005

By 

Serenity Enriquez "Dr. Ivana Ryder" (Lake Tahoe, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sky Burial: An Epic Love Story of Tibet (Hardcover)

Now here is an epic story of love, friendship, courage and sacrifice. Set in Chinese-occupied Tibet and based on a true story, Xinran's extraordinary second book takes the reader right to the hidden heart of one of the world's most mysterious and inaccessible countries. In March 1958, Shu Wen, a young woman and doctor learns that her beloved husband, an idealistic army doctor, has died while serving in Tibet not even a hundred days after their marriage. Unwilling to accept this as fact, she sets out to find out what happened to him by joining his regiment in Tibet. For over twenty years she walked, searching for her husband on a life-changing journey through the Tibetan countryside that leads her to a deep appreciation of Tibet in all its beauty and brutality. Sadly, when she finally discovers the truth about her husband, she must carry her knowledge back to a China that, in her absence, has experienced the Cultural Revolution and changed beyond her ken. Xinran has done an amazing job in depicting the vast Tibetan landscape to us. Surely you too will cry as I did when nearing the end of this amazing must read!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Learn about Tibetan life, October 17, 2007

By 

N. Reddy (Reno, NV) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sky Burial: An Epic Love Story of Tibet (Paperback)

My book club selected this book, and I was dreading the "love story" purported in the title. But this is actually a pretty neat story about Tibetan life, and since it's supposedly based on a true story, I'm assuming it's pretty accurate. I knew nothing about nomadic Tibetan culture and their environment (except what I've seen in movies), and I enjoyed being introduced to it in novel form. I also enjoyed reading the Tibetan take on the Dalai Lama conflict between China/Tibet. The book is simply written and plot slow at times, and since it is a translation, I suspect some things might have been lost. I didn't have too much of a problem with the writing, but I didn't care for all the coincidences that occur toward the end. I'm assuming this is where the book is very LOOSELY based on reality. Overall, I do recommend it.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars In this book the Chinese invaders are not the bad guys, March 18, 2007

By 

Linda Linguvic (New York City) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sky Burial: An Epic Love Story of Tibet (Paperback)

I've always been interested in reading books about Tibet. And so I gladly embraced this 2004 novel by Chinese journalist Xinran. A mere 224 pages, it is a fast read and a romantic adventure. Supposedly based on a true interview the author had with an old Chinese woman who spent 30 years in Tibet, this is the story of Shu Wen, a newlywed in 1958, whose young doctor husband was reported dead in Tibet. The details of his death were not clear and Shu Wen wanted to find out the truth. And so she signed up for the Chinese Communist Army, one of the few females in the group who traveled to Tibet under spartan military conditions with the hope of finding out what happened to her husband.

It took her 30 years to find out the truth. But that was only after she spent most of those years living with a family of Yak herders and befriending a former wealthy Tibetan woman who taught her to survive in the harsh landscape. I loved the part of the book which introduced the family and the Tibetan lifestyle. It also gave humanity to the Chinese invaders who saw themselves as bringing a better life to the people who seemed backward to them and much too steeped in religion. This made interesting reading. The author's language is simple and its clarity had the perfect tone to describe Tibet through this Communist Chinese woman's eyes.

In this book, the Chinese are not the bad guys. And the theme made their conquest of Tibet inevitable. Less effective was the plot because it's hard to believe. There are just too many coincidences. And it's much too romantic. But then again, this is a novel.

Sky Burial's point of view was rather refreshing because it didn't demonize the Chinese. And for that reason think it will best be enjoyed for those who can view it in context.