About the book:
Zhang Yawen was born and raised in grinding poverty in the extreme climate and isolation of rural Northeast China, an experience that imbued her with a fierce desire to survive and to make something of herself. She tells us of the hardships she endured to attend school as a girl living in the wilderness, the tragic stories of her sisters, and her struggle to lift herself out of a lifetime of drudgery to become a professional writer and reporter. As a writer who came from one of the most disadvantaged corners of Chinese society, Zhang offers the reader a view of the world which has rarely been expressed in the English language. Her strength and grit can be felt in every page.

Contents:
Foreword
Chapter 1 My Last Testimony - Four Thousand Times Four Thousand Troubles
Chapter 2 The Inspiration That Brings Fresh Meaning to My Life - The Story of a Chinese Woman and a Nazi General
Chapter 3 "Black Friday" - I Am Driven to Death's Borders
Chapter 4 I Trace My Life Force Back to my Parents
Chapter 5 Mother Hides "Her Wanted Child" Inside the Kang Table
Chapter 6 I Spend My Bitter Childhood Years in the Wilderness of the Lesser Khingan Range Where Wild Beasts Roam Free
Chapter 7 A Rebellious and Infatuated Teenage Girl
Chapter 8 I Am Married to Him - The Best Decision of My Life
Chapter 9 Death Hears My Daughter's Sobs and Lets Me off the Hook
Chapter 10 A Joke Leads Me to Throw Down My Last Chip at the Altar of the Literary World
Chapter 11 Russian Roulette - My Path out of Depression
Chapter 12 Two Last Testaments, One for Myself, One for My Husband