Tombstone | The Great Chinese Famine 1958-1962 by Yang Jisheng looks deeper into the devistating famine during China’s Great Leap Forward. The author pieced together the events that led to mass starvation, and attributes responsibility for the deaths to the totalitarian system and refusal of officials to value human life over ideology and self-interest.
In the Shadow of the Rising Dragon | Stories of Repression in the New China, edited by Xu Youyu and Hua Ze is a collection of personal accounts of Chinese citizens and the inhumanity they regularly face. Edited by two Chinese scholars, both of whom have experienced surveillance, control, abduction, and detention, this is a probing and revealing look at life under the police state of the world’s most populous country.
Mao | The Real Story by Alexander V. Pantsov and Steven I. Levine provides a comprehensive account of Mao Zedong’s rise to power as the leader of China and his ruthless regime. The book traces how he created a totalitarian government even more destructive and extreme than Stalin’s, while transforming China from an impoverished nation to a leading world power. The authors draw upon extensive Russian documents previously unavailable to reveal surprising details about Mao’s rise to power and his leadership in China.
Wrong | Nine Economic Policy Disasters and What We Can Learn from Them by Richard S. Grossman explores several economic policy calamities, shining a light on the poor thinking behind nine of the worst mistakes of the past 200 years, missteps whose outcomes ranged from appalling to tragic.
Fortress Israel | The Inside Story of the Military Elite Who Run the Country–and Why They Can’t Make Peace by Patrick Tyler examines the intertwined relationship between Israel and its military. The book is a remarkable story of character, rivalry, conflict, and the competing impulses for war and for peace in the Middle East.
Die Dongdong-Tänzerin und der Sichuan-Koch: Geschichten aus der chinesischen Wirklichkeit by Liao Yiwu | The Dongdong Dancer and the Sichuan Cook: Stories from Chinese Reality is an exciting and direct insight into the real China of today. Peace Prize winner Liao Yiwu has made it his life’s work to give the small, oppressed people in China a voice.
For a Song and a Hundred Songs | A Poet’s Journey through a Chinese Prison by Liao Yiwu captures the four brutal years Liao spent in jail for writing the incendiary poem “Massacre.” Through the power and beauty of his prose, he reveals the bleak reality of crowded Chinese prisons — the harassment from guards and fellow prisoners, the torture, the conflicts among human beings in close confinement, and the boredom of everyday life. In this important book, Liao presents a stark and devastating portrait of a nation in flux, exposing a side of China that outsiders rarely get to see.
Walden on Wheels | On The Open Road from Debt to Freedom by Ken Ilgunas recounts the author’s adventure to get out his student debt and to avoid it in his future. The book offers a spirited and pointed perspective on the dilemma faced by those who seek an education but who also want to, as Thoreau wrote, “live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.”
The Little Red Guard | A Family Memoir by Wenguang Huang tells story of devotion to traditional Chinese practices during a time of political change. After his grandmother became obsessed with having a proper burial, Huang’s father built her a coffin. Huang was appointed as coffin keeper, a distinction that included sleeping next to the coffin at night.
A Death in the Lucky Holiday Hotel | Murder, Money, and an Epic Power Struggle in China by Pin Ho and Wenguang Huang recounts the corrupt Bo Xilai family’s story. Scandals including the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood; Bo’s secret lovers; and the trial of Gu Kailai, Bo’s wife were the first rumble of a seismic power struggle that continues to rock the very foundation of China’s Communist Party
Peter and Amy Bernstein founded Bernstein Literary Agency in 2009. For over two decades, we have worked with over 100 brilliant authors around the globe and across a gamut of subjects to get their books published, and their stories told. We typically work on non-fiction projects, but we have helped bring many fiction books, children’s books, and the occasional cookbook to market. We work with authors in all stages of their careers, from experienced, award-winning, and bestselling ones to debut writers ready to take on the world.
Amitav Acharya
Esther Allen
Gerard Araud
Chris Bohjalian
Andrew Scott Cooper
Vincent Coppola
Eva Dou
Caldwell B., Esselstyn, Jr., M.D.
Bruce Falconer
Gillian Lipton
Sven Steinmo
Robert Suettinger
Tanzina Vega
Olajide Williams
Dalena Wright