I’ve read a sizable amount of news stories about the internment camps that have been set up all through northwest China, and a decent amount of stories of other repressive measures taken in Xinjiang province against the country’s Uygher population. However, Tahir Hazmut Izgil’s memoir provides an entirely new level of perspective. His story reveals a place where daily existence has undergone death by a thousand policies, security measures, countless random visits by police, checkpoints, and other tools of that state. And while the aforementioned have made life for Uyghers like the author barely tolerable at best, of course topping it all off the trauma of having friends, family and neighbors disappearing off into prison and “educational centers” in increasing numbers while the threat that one could be next lingering heavily overhead.

“Waiting to Be Arrested At Midnight” is a reading experience that not only can be heavily anxiety-inducing, when learning of the paranoia-provoking, claustrophobic nightmare that the Uygher homeland has become. In other words, this is a book that definitely gets the job done. Many thanks for both Izgil for being so willing to share his story, and for his translator Joshua Freeman for making it available to English language speakers such as myself.