Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

Episode 1

Episode 1 of 5

4 Extra Debut. Yang Jishen's untold story of Mao's Great Famine during which 36 million Chinese starved to death. Read by David Yip.

"I call this book Tombstone. It is a tombstone for my father who died of hunger in 1959, for the 36 million Chinese who also died of hunger, for the system that caused their death and perhaps for myself for writing this book."

Yang Jishen's book is banned in China. It is a passionate and angry account of one of the 20th century's most shocking man-made disasters. Based on an array of new sources and personal testimonies and written by someone who was a Communist Party insider with remarkable access to official archives, Tombstone is as significant and powerful a work as Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago.

Read by David Yip.

Produced and abridged by Jane Marshall
A Jane Marshall production for 麻豆社 Radio 4.

15 minutes

Last on

Tue 10 Oct 2017 02:45

More episodes

Previous

You are at the first episode

See all episodes from Book of the Week

Broadcasts

  • Mon 29 Oct 2012 09:45
  • Tue 30 Oct 2012 00:30
  • Mon 9 Oct 2017 14:45
  • Tue 10 Oct 2017 02:45

Listen to more Audio Books

Listen to more Audio Books

Including My Sister The Serial Killer, Queenie, The Flatshare and more.

Opening Lines

Opening Lines

John Yorke unpacks the themes behind the stories in Radio 4's weekend afternoon dramas.

Sample our books and authors Clip Collection

Interviews, previews and reviews

Subscribe to the Short stories podcast

Featuring the best stories from the UK's finest writers

How many of these 100 Novels have you read?

How many of these 100 Novels have you read?

After a passionate debate, our panel has come up with this surprising literary selection.

Finding Your Story

Finding Your Story

Ten remarkable novels about identity: Which one will help you discover yourself?

麻豆社 Arts: Books

Celebrating reading and the 100 novels that have shaped our world.