“THE SONGS OF BIRDS”

In this essay in The New York Review of Books, I review books of poetry by Liu Xia and look at her life under house arrest. 

Liu Xia is best known as the wife of China’s imprisoned Nobel peace laureate, Liu Xiaobo, but she is primarily a poet and artist. Since his award of the prize in 2010, she has been under house arrest but still able to write. I review some of her translated works, as well as a new biography of Liu Xiaobo that sheds much light on the beleaguered couple.

The essay is now unpaywalled thanks to ChinaFile, the Asia Society website that has an arrangement with the Review to make China article for free after a month.