Blinded by illness when he was an infant, Chen Guangcheng was lucky to survive his impoverished childhood. Yet despite his disability, he was determined to become a lawyer and fight for the rights of his country's poor, especially the legion of women who had endured forced sterilization under the hated 'one child' policy.
His activism soon led to repeated harassment by the Chinese authorities and, ultimately, Chen was placed under house arrest. But one morning in April 2012, he climbed over the wall of his heavily guarded home and escaped.
With a foreword by the Dalai Lama, The Barefoot Lawyer is the electrifying story of a man who has never accepted limits and always believed in the power of the human spirit to overcome any obstacle. It is both a riveting memoir and a revealing portrait of modern China.
'Here is China down and dirty, a side of the country rarely, if ever, experienced by foreigners, no matter how knowledgeable or fluent in the language they are' Jonathan Mirsky, Literary Review
'Truly inspiring . . . a powerful reminder of how some aspects of the country remain unchanged despite its rapidly growing prosperity' Economist