Pulled together in the form of a collection of short stories, these are the unrelated anecdotes of individuals who fled China for Taiwan in the aftermath of the Communist victory on the mainland. The idea behind the book is wonderful, and it's both eye opening and saddening to read the individual stories of ordinary lives made not ordinary in extraordinary times, and families separated for a lifetime, sometimes never to be reunited in life. Reading this is like listening to stories that my grandparents used to tell as they reminisced about their homeland and friends and family that you hear of but never get to know.
That said - the actual writing is all over the place. Some segments are written well and you feel like you can really envision the scene being described, some are written as dry recitation of facts. I think it has to do with how much personal interaction the author had with the subjects, but either way the inconsistency definitely detracted from the overall feel of the book.