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A remarkable novel by one of Tibet’s foremost authors, The Red Wind Howls is a courageous and gripping portrayal of Tibetan suffering under Mao’s regime. The story delves deep into forbidden history, spanning the famine of the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and, most taboo of all, the 1958 Amdo rebellion when Tibetans rose in armed revolt against the Chinese state. Tsering Döndrup self-published the book in 2006, because no publisher would risk accepting it. When the authorities caught wind, all copies were confiscated and the author faced severe reprisals. He lost his job as head of the local archives, his passport was confiscated, and he has been under close surveillance ever since.
This powerful novel is set in part in the punitive labor camps to which Tibetans were sent after the failed rebellion, where many perished from starvation or forced labor. Inside and outside the camps, it depicts with dark humor a world of informers, cruelty, and score settling, against the backdrop of immeasurable environmental devastation and the destruction of traditional Tibetan ways of life. The novel draws on extensive interviews conducted by the author, and the rhythms of oral storytelling are reflected in its fragmented narrative style, which jumps back and forth between periods and events. An unparalleled account of the Chinese Communist Party’s takeover of Tibet, The Red Wind Howls is both a richly imaginative work of fiction and a vital piece of historical testimony.
Vivid and excoriating...a contemporary world-literature classic.
— Sam Sacks
Part Gulag Archipelago, part One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Red Wind Howls breaks the curse of erased memory imposed by the colonial powers. An urgent, tragic, and vital testimony for the Tibetan people.
— Woeser, author of Forbidden Memory: Tibet During the Cultural Revolution
The Red Wind Howls is a masterpiece of world literature, a rare work that captures the little-known violence and madness of modern Tibetan existence under colonial occupation. Produced at great personal cost, Tsering Döndrup's novel is one of the most important and dangerous in the Tibetan canon. A document of profound human courage and moral clarity.
— Tsering Yangzom Lama, award-winning author of We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies
Döndrup tells this story with his characteristic iconoclasm and dark humor that frequently had me laughing in spite of the seriousness of the subject matter.
— Benno Weiner
In Christopher Peacock’s lively translation, the past and present seem to take place at the same time, as though past suffering is lived simultaneously with the present moment.
It is a monumental literary achievement, an act of defiance that helps pierce a regime of forced forgetting.
With richly drawn characters and compelling storytelling, The Red Wind Howls immerses readers in an important and often overlooked moment of Tibetan history.
This is Tsering Dondrup's boldest and most meticulously researched novel yet. Capturing the complex and tragic existence of Tibet under Chinese occupation, the book is as much about human suffering as it is about moral courage and the survival of a civilization.
Peacock has a writer’s ear, which ... makes for a fine reading experience in English.
Tsering Döndrup is one of modern Tibet’s most celebrated writers, the author of several novels and collections of short fiction. His work has been translated into numerous languages, and he is the recipient of several literary awards. Tsering Döndrup self-published The Red Wind Howls in 2006 because no publisher would risk accepting it. When the authorities caught on, all copies were confiscated and the author faced severe reprisals, which continue to this day.
Christopher Peacock is assistant professor of East Asian studies at Dickinson College. Among his translations are Tsering Döndrup’s The Handsome Monk and Other Stories (Columbia, 2019) and Tsering Yangkyi’s Flowers of Lhasa (2022).
Introduction: The Unspeakable History of The Red Wind Howls
The Red Wind Howls