The Book of Secrets: A Personal History of Betrayal in Red China

“You were born and raised in a household that couldn’t provide you with any real answers, and lived in a society in which no one dared speak the truth,” writes Chinese military intelligence officer Jie (1927–2017) in unsent letters to his daughter Snow. Semi-anonymized excerpts from this stash of letters and voice recordings, found by Snow after Jie’s death, comprise the bulk of this enthralling exploration by journalist Xinran (The Good Women of China) of the life of a communist party acolyte in late 20th-century China. After joining the party as an idealistic university student in the 1940s, Jie rose quickly to a position of power in Beijing. In his letters, Jie strives to deconstruct his fraught relationship with the young cadet who would become his wife. The couple, unable to live together or raise their children (a grandmother stepped in) due to their party assignments, were constantly urged to report on each other. Their marriage unraveled as both struggled with the paranoid politics that had overtaken their government: “From the cage of our marriage we have watched the political chaos unfold outside while trying not to tear each other to pieces within.” The surreal lyricism of a spymaster’s secret diary coupled with the behind-the-scenes look at China’s intelligence apparatus makes for addictive reading. Readers will be hooked. (Apr.)