The Book of Secrets - A Personal History of Betrayal in Red China

''An extraordinary firsthand account of Communist Party machinery at its most brutal and paranoid'' -- Sunday Telegraph Picked as Hilary Spurling''s Book of the Year in The Spectator. The spellbinding story of the secret life of a spy in modern China, drawn from an extraordinary archive of personal diaries and letters. Following the lives of military intelligence officer Jie and his wife Moon, The Book of Secrets weaves recently found material into a narrative that not only illuminates the shadowy world of intelligence in China, but also the emotional tragedies that political extremism inflicted on those working within. Drawing on Jie''s own vivid biography of his youth, Xinran pieces together his trajectory as he joins the great hope of the Chinese young - the Communist Party - and becomes a loyal cadre until the late 1970s when, as a chief in the security forces, he makes a decision that will poison his family against him. This is a totally unique behind-the-scenes account of a family torn apart by the Tiananmen Square massacre and the attempts of Jie to finally open up the Chinese system to the people, pieced together from an extraordinary archive of personal diaries and letters.

List of contents

Foreword - Words on the Night Breeze
Snow's Story
Xinran, December 2018
PART ONE: The Tapes
1 A Family Fragmented by the Chaos of War
2 Tsinghua - An Awakening of Love and Faith
3 Questions of Career and Faith
PART TWO: Jie's Letters to his Wife Moon
4 1951-4 - Fantasy and Romance
5 1954-7 - Confusion and Disruption
6 1957-66 - Betrayal and Adversity
7 1976-2009 - Resurrection and Death
8 2010-17 - The Final Messages
Afterword - Xinran
Acknowledgements
Index

About the author

Xinran Xue

Product details

• Authors: Xinran Xue, Xue Xinran
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 14.08.2025
• EAN: 9781399406697
• ISBN: 978-1-399-40669-7
• No. of pages: 320
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature > Letters, diaries; Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Miscellaneous; China, Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000, Diaries, letters & journals, LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Diaries & Journals, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Intelligence & Espionage, LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Letters, POLITICAL SCIENCE / World / Asian, HISTORY / Asia / China, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Corruption & Misconduct, Political corruption, Asian History, Espionage & secret services, Diaries, letters and journals, Espionage and secret services, c 1945 to c 2000 (Post-war period), Corruption in politics, government and society, c 1945 to c 1990 (the Cold War period)