Eat the Buddha

Powerful… a deeply textured, densely reported and compelling exploration of Ngaba… Demick brilliantly unpicks the connections between the self-immolations and Tibetans’ past… The richness of this book lies in its nuance as much as its extraordinary detail * Observer *Barbara Demick is a reporter of impressive tenacity and thoroughness – Joan Bakewell * The Times *An illuminating and important book – Kapka KassabovaThis is not just another book about the injustice Tibetans suffer at the hands of the Chinese government. As she did in Nothing to Envy, Barbara Demick has pieced together from in-depth interviews not only the reality but the soul of a place, weaving together individual stories with all their contradictions and complexity. Neither heroes or martyrs, they are ordinary people desperately trying to adapt or resist to avoid being destroyed by the forces of history – Lindsey Hilsum, International Editor Channel 4 NewsSuperb – Editor’s Choice * Bookseller *[Barbara Demick] has achieved something remarkable… Gripping… Demick illuminates [Ngaba] as no other writer has… Seldom is the veil lifted from Tibet - which makes Ms. Demick’s chronicles all the more worth reading * Economist *Extraordinarily good. A superb storyteller, Demick melds the personal, the historical and the political seamlessly as she delves into the town’s intriguing living legacy of rebellion. The people whose stories she tells […] leap from the pages, full of life * New Internationalist *Outstanding… Every page packed with insight and gripping detail… [Demick] has written a book not only about modern Tibet but one that helps explain the current, poisonous moment in China… Compelling… Life stories meticulously woven’ * Financial Times *Lucid and poignant…beautifully written * Literary Review *A vivid, exhaustively researched, and ground-level view of the impact of history on people’s lives… Compelling * New Statesman *This remarkable book offers a unique insight into Tibet’s plight, allowing the reader to understand what it is like for its people to be tossed about in a political storm * Daily Mail *Demick is at once an intrepid reporter and scrupulous historian; she tells the story of Ngaba, however, like a novelist * Guardian *

Barbara Demick won the Samuel Johnson Prize for Nothing to Envy (Granta, 2010), her seminal book on North Korea, and was longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction for Eat the Buddha (Granta 2020). She is also the author of Besieged (Granta, 2012), her account of the war in Sarajevo, which won the George Polk Award, the Robert F Kennedy Award and was shortlisted for a Pulitzer Prize. She lives in New York.