Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-62

WINNER OF THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE

'A gripping and masterful portrait of the brutal court of Mao, based on new research but also written with great narrative verve'Simon Sebag Montefiore

'Harrowing and brilliant'Ben Macintyre

'A critical contribution to Chinese history'Wall Street Journal

Between 1958 and 1962, 45 million Chinese people were worked, starved or beaten to death.
Mao Zedong threw his country into a frenzy with the Great Leap Forward, an attempt to catch up with and overtake the West in less than fifteen years. It led to one of the greatest catastrophes the world has ever known.

Dikotter's extraordinary research within Chinese archives brings together for the first time what happened in the corridors of power with the everyday experiences of ordinary people, giving voice to the dead and disenfranchised. This groundbreaking account definitively recasts the history of the People's Republic of China.

An unprecedented, groundbreaking history of China's Great Famine

Winner of the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize 2011

A masterpiece of historical investigation into one of the world's greatest crimes New Statesman

It is hard to exaggerate the achievement of this book in proving that Mao caused the famine ... only thanks to brilliant scholarship such as this will the heirs of the vanished millions finally learn what happened to their ancestors Sunday Times

The most authoritative and comprehensive study of the biggest and most lethal famine in history. A must-read Jung Chang

Gripping ... Prof Diktter's painstaking analysis of the archives shows Mao's regime resulted in the greatest man-made famine the world has ever seen Daily Express