Daughters of the Bamboo Grove

From China to America, a True Story of Abduction, Adoption, and Separated Twins

De: Barbara Demick

Narrado por: Joy Osmanski

The heartrending story of twin sisters torn apart by China’s one-child policy and the rise of international adoption—from the author of the National Book Award finalist Nothing to Envy, one of today’s leading reporters

“An amazing book. I truly couldn’t put it down.”—Lisa See, New York Times bestselling author of Lady Tan’s Circle of Women

“Barbara Demick turns the seemingly prosaic human dramas of our societies into a cinematic and heart-rending epic tale with consequences that cross continents.”—Emily Feng, author of Let Only Red Flowers Bloom

On a warm day in September 2000, a woman named Zanhua gave birth to twin girls in a small hut behind her brother’s home in China’s Hunan province. The twins, Fangfang and Shuangjie, were welcome additions to her family but also not her first children. Living under the shadow of China’s notorious one-child policy, Zanhua and her husband decided to leave one twin in the care of relatives, hoping each toddler on their own might stay under the radar. But, in 2002, Fangfang was violently snatched away. The family worried they would never see her again, but they didn’t imagine she could be sent as far as the United States. She might as well have been sent to another world.

Following stories she wrote as the Beijing bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times, Barbara Demick embarks on a journey that encompasses the origins, shocking cruelty, and long-term impact of China’s one-child rule; the rise of international adoption and the religious currents that buoyed it; and the exceedingly rare phenomenon of twin separation. Today, Esther—formerly Fangfang—lives in Texas, and Demick brings to vivid life the Christian family that felt called to adopt her, unaware that she had been kidnapped. Through Demick’s indefatigable reporting, will the long-lost sisters finally reunite—and will they feel whole again?

A remarkable window into the volatile, constantly changing China of the last half century and the long-reaching legacy of the country’s most infamous law, Daughters of the Bamboo Grove is also the moving story of two sisters torn apart by the forces of history and brought together again by their families’ determination and one reporter’s dogged work.

©2025 Barbara Demick (P)2025 Random House Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

“This book is resounding proof that nobody can understand China without reading Barbara Demick, because she unearths stories the government wants buried. She writes with such humanity and literary grace that this envelops you like a novel in which every word is true.”—Evan Osnos, National Book Award-winning author of Age of Ambition

“Brilliantly written with passion and forensic detail, the book reads like a fast-paced whodunit, with the crime committed against a nation, a people, and girls everywhere.”—Mei Fong, author of One Child

“Awinning journalist Barbara Demick has created an informative, sometimes heart-wrenching, sometimes up-lifting story of China’s One-Child Policy and transnational adoption.”—Lisa See, New York Times bestselling author of Lady Tan’s Circle of Women