The Vine Basket tells of a Uyghur girl’s struggle in a land dominated by the Chinese communist regime.
When fourteen-year-old Mehrigul’s brother leaves home she must give up school to help on the family farm. That makes her a prime candidate to be sent to work in a Chinese factory. She alone knows the truth of her brother’s departure – and that he will not return. Whether she is sent thousands of miles away or tied to farm work, her future looks bleak.
How Mehrigul takes a hand in shaping her destiny is at the heart of a story that celebrates creativity, determination, and dreams.
“This is an engrossing tale about an Uyghur girl living in East Turkestan [now part of China]. I knew nothing of these people or what they face under Han Chinese rule, and I found this book absolutely fascinating. It is quite educational, but also completely entertaining because you see it all through the lens of the main character’s life and struggles.
The story is beautifully written, so poignant that I cried in parts. The author is a masterful story teller, bringing you fully into the scene and into the heart and mind of the heroine. I read the whole book in 24 hours because I literally could not put it down.
If you’ve ever wondered who it is that works in all those Chinese factories making all the cheap plastic garbage that we buy here in the West, this book will answer that question for you. I wanted so badly for the heroine to break free and to have a happy ending. I won’t reveal whether that happened or not, I will only say that this is an amazing book that has forever changed the way I look at the world.”
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