A Stone is Most Precious Where It Belongs: A Memoir of Uyghur Loss, Exile and Hope

Gulchehra Hoja's memoir is a powerful and urgent account of loss, exile, and hope, revealing the courage and cost of telling a truer story of the Uyghur people's struggle against Chinese oppression.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 320 pages
Publication date: 07 March 2024
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group

A powerful and urgent memoir of loss, exile, and hope by Uyghur activist Gulchehra Hoja. This gripping memoir conveys the courage and cost of telling a truer story.

The Guardian named it Book of the Day, describing it as "Revelatory... The particulars of her story speak for the losses of a people." The Sunday Telegraph called it "Essential reading," while the Financial Times praised it as "Invaluable."

In February 2018, twenty-four members of Gulchehra Hoja's family were arrested by the Chinese state as a direct retaliation for her investigations into Chinese oppression of the Uyghur people. Hoja grew up with her people's culture and history running through her veins. As a young woman, she became a star presenter on Chinese state television, but then she began to understand what China was doing to her people, as well as her own complicity as a journalist. When her rising fame and growing political awakening coincided, she made it her mission, despite the personal cost, to expose the crimes Beijing continues to commit in the far reaches of its nation.

A memoir of an extraordinary life, which takes in the past 50 years of Xinjiang's history. This story is normally told with statistics, but she illuminates it with the all-important details.

The Times praised it as "A deeply moving page turner," while Michael Portillo described it as "Pulses with energy and beauty, making us care about what is being erased at mass scale by telling a deeply personal tale." The Sunday Telegraph called it "A textured story of how Uyghurs tried to survive and subvert Chinese cruelty," while the Economist praised it as "A powerful and urgent memoir of loss, exile, and hope by Uyghur activist Gulchehra Hoja."

Weight: 266g
Dimension: 127 x 196 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780349015989