Customer Rating: 
Summary: Eighteen Layers of Hell: Stories from the Chinese Gulag
Comment: A book that hurts to read, but must be read. An experience everyone should undertake. Well written, sometime too well.
What a fantastic book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Full Horror of 'The Motherland' at her worst
Comment: I realised on reading this book that I've been walking around with my head in the sand for years. I cried when I was bought face to face with man's inhumanity to man in a way that I suppose I knew existed but have just not chosen to think about. I defy anyone to read this book and not end up joining Amnesty International or changing their lives in some way to rise to the challege that is presented by learning what Kate Saunders has so courageously researched and written. I stand in awe of this author. Read this book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Comment: This book is just fantastic!!!I have to admit that at first I thought it was by the 'other' Kate Saunders (the not quite so famous romantic author)-I must say I thought it was a funny title for a romance!!- but despite my usual preference for the softer side of life I loved every beautifully crafted word of this. All I can say is, if this Kate Saunders wrote romantic fiction as well, I would be first in line to buy it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Well researched and objective
Comment: Kate Saunders has written an objective and well researeched book. I have presonal experience of China and the Laogai system and it has always amazed me that more is not written about it. Maybe this book will go some way to highlighting the issue.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Can the contents of this book be true?
Comment: I read this book on a nine day bus tour (don't ask) of Yunnan in the blazing heat of Summer. Revealed in this book are some of the most amazing stories I have read in eight year's study of China and Chinese. At the time of reading the book I was living in Shanghai, where there apparently is a large laogai (gulag). You will never find it by looking, I can assure you. Your average Chinese bloke hasn't got a clue about the sort of institutionalised abuse that is covered in this book - but perhaps suspects.. Reading this book was a real eye-opener, and the issues raised are profound indeed (obviously!). I suspect 99% of what is in this book is true, and it left me feeling rather odd, as I walked through the streets of Shanghai, it has certainly changed my view of the Mainland. The book covers not only Shanghai, but China entire, and is a documentary account of Human Rights abuses, with footnotes and references. An ideal accompaniment to Wild Swans, and Falling Leaves, although covering different ground. I can't help feeling anyone who has never been to China may get the wrong impression from this book. The stuff that's in it you will never see or hear of whilst in China, that's part of the book's spooky attraction, entering a secret and very grim world. Whilst on this Yunnan trip, my mate was reading Riding the Iron Rooster, perhaps more appropriate reading for any China trip. As amusing and relevant now as it was in 1985, when Theroux was quite literally pushing back the frontiers.
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