- Published: 1 October 2022
- ISBN: 9781784743796
- Imprint: Chatto & Windus
- Format: Hardback
- Pages: 384
- RRP: $69.99
Fragile Cargo
China’s Wartime Race to Save the Treasures of the Forbidden City
- Published: 1 October 2022
- ISBN: 9781784743796
- Imprint: Chatto & Windus
- Format: Hardback
- Pages: 384
- RRP: $69.99
Adam Brookes has an eye for a great story and knows how to tell it. Fragile Cargo cannot fail to delight... I enjoyed it enormously
John Keay, author of CHINA: A HISTORY
A compelling story of art, war and adventure. An extraordinary odyssey of the imperial treasures of the Forbidden City, protected by heroic and remarkable curators... Superb
Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of STALIN: THE COURT OF THE RED TSAR
A riveting read... With his meticulously researched and detailed writing, Adam Brookes takes us on a compelling journey through this extraordinary chapter of Chinese history. Fragile Cargo reads like a thriller... Gripping stuff
Alexi Kaye Campbell, writer of feature film WOMAN IN GOLD
So much more than a work of art history, Brookes's book illuminates the exceptional dramas of the Chinese front in the Second World War, a theatre of the conflict that is still insufficiently understood
Julia Lovell, Literary Review
Brookes... marries a reporter's grasp of detail with a novelist's narrative flair to bring clarity and readability to a complicated period of China's troubled history
Mail on Sunday
[A] gripping and meticulously researched account of an epic effort to transport delicate scrolls, paintings and carvings thousands of miles under the thread of bombing and invasion
Times Literary Supplement
A story of bravery and ingenuity, and equally of the critical role cultural heritage plays in forming and maintaining national identity.
Wall Street Journal