Eat The Buddha: Life And Death In A Tibetan Town

"Barbara Demick is a master at bringing faraway places to life. Her 2010 book, Nothing to Envy, was about North Korea and her latest is about Tibet, which has been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party since the 1950s and is, in many ways, hard to reach. For Eat the Buddha, Demick brings to life one town, Ngaba, through profiles of a handful of people: a nearsighted nomad who becomes a monk, a schoolgirl faced with the choice between family and money, and a princess named Gonpo, the daughter of the last king of Ngaba. They’re beautifully wrought portraits that Demick paints with depth, complexity and uncommon insight. A fully absorbing and compelling book that goes way beyond the headlines."