Deadly Quiet City; True Stories from Wuhan by Murong Xuecun was devastating. We are still in this pandemic so it isn't even "history" yet. A must read.

Thank you NetGalley, Murong Xuecun, and The New Press for an ARC of Deadly Quiet City. This is a collection of voices who lived in (or traveled to) China during the worst parts of the COVID-19 pandemic. I'm not usually one for collections, but I was immersed in Deadly Quiet City.

This was...chilling. Now that the worst parts of the pandemic lifestyle (isolation, lockdowns, etc.) are behind us for the time being, I forgot how it felt. I forgot how it felt to fear that even the smarted people we know -- our doctors -- were still puzzled by and ignorant to what COVID-19 could do. I forgot about how isolating it was to shelter in place and how negatively affected my mental health.

Importantly, I forgot how angry I was at mainland China. Humans have to have something or someone to blame in the midst of tragedy. A lot of us blamed the country where it began and its own Patient Zero.

Now that I've had time to process it, Deadly Quiet City provided what I truly needed: The perspective from those living in China during the start and height of the pandemic. I was not surprised to read about the actions of behalf of the tyrannical Chinese government, nor was I surprised to read about the extreme measures taken in a a place as populous as China.

I felt a connection to the voices in the Deadly Quiet City collection. Some came together to expose the Chinese Government's cover-ups regarding the severity of COVID-19; others came together to rally against the Chinese Government and illegally transport those who weren't supposed to mobilize. And of course, readers meet individuals who struggle to get the care they need for themselves and their children (these made me cry).

Easy five stars. This is a great read for anyone seeking to understand what it was like to live where it all began. I highly recommend Deadly Quiet City.

“Deadly Quiet City” describes the beginning of the Pandemic and how it felt to live in Wuhan at that special time. It gives an interesting insight into China and Chinese politics but was at some points linguistically hard to read.

Coming from a post-communist country myself I know how the regime works and I knew what to expect from this book. What surprised me though are two things. First - I thought that most people have lost their faith in the Party a long time ago, but are too oppressed to take an action and overthrow the regime; it turns out there are lots and lots of people who genuinely believe in the government and are very obedient. Second - socialism is the backbone of communism, which means that the government is supposed to be looking after their citizens like a good parent, that means free education, including higher education and free healthcare; yet in China, healthcare is very expensive, actually unaffordable for most. There is an old Chinese saying: I live, because I can't afford the coffin. I think this saying comes from at least the XV century and it looks like it´s still very much real. Heartbreaking.
What is important about these stories is that they are all real, told by real people. China is so heavily censored and controlled, that for a foreigner having a little insight into the daily living of an ordinary citizen is almost impossible. If you want to know where the virus came from - sorry, wrong door. If you want to know how the situation was handled by the Chinese government initially - here you go.
I agree that the writing isn´t the best. The book is quite repetitive. We read over and over again about censorship and obedience towards the government (that's important and needs to be highlighted, but perhaps in a different way?), food and medicine shortages, actions taken by the government etc.
This is an important work of documentary value. I´m glad the Chinese government can´t stop this from publishing worldwide because there are so many people out there who have no understanding whatsoever of the communist regime of China.

I had a bit of a hard time getting into the writing style of this book, however the actual content itself is absolutely heart wrenching and tragic. The book consists of a collection of profiles of people in Wuhan whose lives were affected by the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan and the following lockdown.

Books like this are such an important part of history, and I'm sure that it'll be used (might already be used) in future history classes.

As we enter the third year of the Covid-19 pandemic, it's easy to become complacent about how we've dealt with it. The West has effective vaccines and acquired immunity, and even in China the Party has finally loosened its grip and ended the cruel lockdowns. But we should not forget how much suffering it caused, not only out of respect for the victims, but also to learn from it. And there have been few places where the suffering has been both greater and less known than in Wuhan in the early months of 2020.

This courageous book sheds some light on that time. Risking his own safety and that of his protagonists, the author conducted numerous interviews with Wuhan residents about the nightmare they lived through. It is a heartbreaking story that everyone should know.

Thanks to the publisher, The New Press, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

In the throes of 2020, I assumed it would be a long time before I wanted to engage with any stories from the pandemic. Three years on, I find myself desperate for thoughtful attention to this crisis, as we are told to act as if it is no longer in our midst. Deadly Quiet City offers a series of portraits in Wuhan from the first earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic. I am impressed by the range of experiences captured by the interview subjects, particularly given the risks and challenges in recording their stories.

I admit, I assumed some of the worst rumors I'd heard about China's COVID lockdown policy were anti-communist propaganda. In some ways, the events narrated in this volume are worse than I'd expected, particularly regarding the secrecy and suppression of crucial public health information in the earliest days of the crisis. The stories are grim: overworked doctors with insufficient resources in clinics at the heart of the first emergence of the virus; helpless loved ones trying to find care for their children, spouses, and parents; the fear and uncertainty of those who got sick and left to fend for themselves. The recurring image of Wuhan's cherry blossoms blooming and withering unnoticed in the background of those agonizing first few months is especially moving. These stories are shocking, devastating, and crucial.

A heartbreaking and shocking account of the pandemic and the toll it took on different residents of Wuhan when they were on lockdown in the early days of the pandemic. It is horrifying to see the pure disregard for human life and the lack of compassion. Frankly, though, it is not surprising considering the structure and history of China. It's good to see true stories being published in English so that more of the world can reflect on the callousness of the Chinese government.

Nobody is going to "enjoy" reading this, but it is the fate of history to be read with some amount of pain. And it is a very important book that was authored by a notable Chinese author.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. It's a very worthy documentation of the experience of those unfortunate enough to be in Wuhan at the beginning of the pandemic.

Unfortunately this book was a DNF for me. The stories are very interesting and heartbreaking and even within the first 20% I learned a lot of new information about what was going on in Wuhan during the start of the pandemic.
The writing style is so dry though that i just can‘t do it anymore. It is very flat, very emotionless and textbook-like.
If there was an audiobook I would continue because i am really interested in the content.

"By the time the US edition of this book arrives in bookstores, the world will have returned to some semblance of normality... The only exception will be China."

Thank you #NetGalley and #TheNewPress for giving me the opportunity to read this prior to the March 2023 publication date. I am not sure if the editor's note came with the 2022 version of this book, but the version that appeared in the 2023 is harrowing and impactful.

After the wonderful preface, the Xuecun then leads with a collection of 8 short stories from the interviews of people living in Wuhan during the start of covid. We get introduced to a wide array of people from all walks of life, for example:
- a doctor forced to abandon ethics in order to follow the government's new covid policies.
- A scrappy and resourceful motorcycle taxi driver who illegally transported sick people during the shut down because he needed to make an income at all costs.
- A lawyer turned anti-communistic protestor who had her life horrifyingly turned upside down for speaking her mind. She goes to Wuhan and becomes a "citizen journalist"; exposing what the Chinese media is trying to hide, a brave act of rebellion.
- A university professor and publishing editor who had doubts about the government's honesty surrounding covid. Once covid broke out in Wuhan, unlike the other characters interviewed, he took his family and fled. Wuhan escapees are vilified on social media, to the point that him and his family are afraid to leave their rented home in Guangzhou. "They viciously cursed me, but what have I done wrong?"
- Two successful business men who openly support China's government and caught covid around the beginning of the outbreak. Regardless of their difficulties with getting treatment, they widely still praised China's efforts at controlling the outbreaks. That author suggests that maybe being supportive of the Chinese government is a survival skill for the successful
- A wackadoodle character who is outspoken and ambitious, who writes subpar poetry and forces everyone to listen to it, and who's dream is to become a philanthropist. He is using covid as a chance to gain fame, because fame will bring him money, and money will allow him to be a philanthropist. His dream from becoming a philanthropist changes to becoming a "miracle doctor" (with not formal medical training). This story, unlike the other ones that were sad and horrifying, was a bit uplifting and humorous, so it was a nice change of tone.

The afterward contains interesting follow-ups on all of the people interviewed, and also has a detailed day-by-day breakdown of the covid outbreak in China, which I found interesting.

Overall, this book is incredibly important. It is not just about covid, but rather about China's totalitarianism, told from the perspective of people who live in it.

"When medical issues are politicized, we'll never be free from fear and a normal society will be far away."

This book surveys the situation in Wuhan as the COVID-19 pandemic evolved. The story is told by summarizing and quoting from interviews with people in all walks of life. Some themes are familiar—misinformation, lack of supplies, packed hospitals, stripped supermarket shelves, a sense of isolation.

Some examples of those interviewed or discussed in this book include regime supporters who became ill and disillusioned; people who were surveilled, threatened, or imprisoned for petty offenses or speaking out against the regime; frail and sick people who suffer without adequate food or transportation; the poor struggling to eek out a living during the pandemic; neighborhood committees and urban grid management administrators, “an important component of the Chinese government’s measures to control the masses.” Within these stories we hear of the disturbing implementation of QR codes that are required to move about the day, to shop, eat out, and travel, something the author is concern is there to stay. A cry for justice is a pervasive theme.

China’s culture, history, and its governing regime have been examined and reported on for decades, so the information in this book is not new or surprising. It is important, however, to hear from the people who share their lived experiences during a period that history will record as one more plague against which leadership was unprepared. Those personal stories, in a nutshell, is the value of this book.

Thank you to The New Press and NetGalley for providing this ARC.

Life in a totalitarian state in the midst of a pandemic is examined in Deadly Quiet City, an account of Wuhan in the early days of Covid-19. The author, a respected Chinese novelist, snuck into Wuhan and interviewed ordinary citizens, who told their horrific tales of the medical and social disaster unfolding in the city. From government coverup to its maltreatment of its citizens, the book is an indictment of the CCP.

My thanks to the publisher and to Netgalley for providing an ARC of the book.

4.5/5 stars. i'm thankful for the efforts that were made in order for these stories to be told and to bring the events of the COVID-19 pandemic to light.

these were incredibly poignant, touching tales from a city that endured hardships beyond comprehension. simple, but evocative language was used skilfully here to show a side of this city that news reports and media weren't able to capture in quite the same light and detail. this was well-written and captured the humanity behind wuhan's struggles, telling the same events and timeline from eight different points of view. the eighth story in particular brought tears to my eyes, and i had to stop several times to process it.

I'd only recommend this to those who really, really, really want to know what happened in Wuhan. Not only is it heart wrenching and tragic but the writing style is severely lacking. I'm not sure if it's in translation or that the writer wasn't writing to engage his readers but it was flat and dry much like a text book. Still, you'll want a box of tissues as the facts alone, even written like Ikea instructions, are devastating.

This was an incredibly well-written yet heartbreaking account of the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in China. Hearing some of the awful experiences endured by people was difficult at times to read but is an incredibly important perspective that needed to be told. My heart breaks for what those in this book experienced but appreciate the great courage it took for the author to share this book with others.

Devastatingly sad stories from Wuhan at the height of the pandemic.

While the stories were tragic, sometimes difficult to read, the format it was written in was pretty dry and failed to hold
my attention for long stretches.

That being said, if you’re interested in hearing stories from the epicenter of the pandemic, this is worth a read!

Thank you to NG for a copy of this book