Waiting to Be Arrested at Night

Praise

“A personal and moving look at the persecution of the Uyghur people by the Chinese government . . . Izgil resists detailing the violence he and his people have faced, but his restraint makes the descriptions of the police’s constant harassment and surveillance feel all the more Orwellian . . . In absorbing prose, translated by Joshua L. Freeman, Izgil recounts the process of finding a way out . . . A harrowing story of personal resilience and an exposé on an urgent humanitarian crisis.” —TIME’s 100 Must-Read Books of 2023

“Tahir Hamut Izgil evokes the fear and danger of daily life for a Chinese ethnic minority that has been the target of a brutal crackdown . . . Waiting to Be Arrested at Night is an outlier among books about human rights. There are no scenes of torture, no violence and few sweeping proclamations about genocide. Izgil writes with calculated restraint. As his title suggests, the terror is in the anticipation. This is in effect a psychological thriller, although the narrative unfolds like a classic horror movie as relative normalcy dissolves into a nightmare.” —Barbara Demick, The New York Times Book Review

“Urgent and haunting . . . Riveting . . . Written in clear, short, lyrically powerful prose . . . The intimacy of Tahir’s portrayal personalizes an urgent humanitarian crisis . . . A celebration of freedom, love, faith, family, friendship, dignity, compassion, place, and poetry.” —The Los Angeles Review of Books

“A lucid and quietly terrifying memoir . . . A lived-in page-turner with the slow, grim boil of a le Carré novel . . . threaded with a few of Izgil’s short striking poems. Together they tell a story immediately accessible to anyone who’s ever found themselves tied up in red tape—and capture, in harrowing miniature, a portrait of horrors we can scarcely imagine . . . Read Waiting to Be Arrested at Night for its many human-scale moments of sorrow and grace.” —The Washington Post

“Harrowing . . . Waiting to Be Arrested at Night serves as one of the best available histories of the genocidal policies in Xinjiang since 2015, and is especially valuable as an on-the-ground, first-person account. The story is all the more powerful for the matter-of-fact way Izgil tells it . . . We can only hope that with this translation, Izgil’s gripping story and Uyghur literature generally will gain more well-deserved global attention.” —The Boston Globe

“Izgil’s memoir is a story about how to survive in, and to negotiate one’s way through, a society in which repression has become routine, and the power of the state is unfettered. The book’s restraint is also its strength. The tension in the narrative flows from the dread captured in the title—the dread of waiting to be arrested, to be vanished into detention, a dread no Uyghur can escape.” —The Guardian

“Waiting to Be Arrested at Night is a product of the collaboration between one of the leading Uyghur poets, Tahir Hamut Izgil, and one of the most prolific English-language literary translators of works in Uyghur, Joshua Freeman . . . Waiting to Be Arrested at Night is an account of what Izgil witnessed in Xinjiang from the early 2010s to his departure with his family in 2017. Despite the heavy emotional burden that has accompanied the steady onslaught against Uyghur society, throughout the book Izgil remains a sober observer . . . Izgil’s work makes a significant contribution for our understanding of the individual aspect of the crisis.” —The Journal of Asian Studies

“Tahir Hamut Izgil’s recent memoir, Waiting to Be Arrested at Night, brings to life a cast of poets and intellectuals who used to meet under the cover of darkness, against the backdrop of mass detentions in Ürümqi, the capital of Xinjiang province . . . Izgil was perhaps the only Uyghur intellectual to escape the government security apparatus . . . The stories contained [here] evoke a lost world of Uyghur intellectual and family life, and chronicle its gradual erasure.” —Dissent Magazine
 
​“Tahir’s book gives a sense of Uyghur cultural life on a quotidian level . . . He emphasizes both the suffering and the resilience of Uyghur communities—and as a result avoids portraying the situation of Uyghurs (including himself) solely as one of victimhood . . . Tahir’s memoir is powerful precisely because of its measured tone: He lets the facts speak for themselves.” —The Dial

“[Izgil] deserves to be read and listened to widely . . . This is a beautiful read. Izgil’s poetic gaze, and the elegant translation by Joshua L. Freeman, together produce a compact, compelling prose that pushes you to keep reading on, even as you blink back tears.” —Yuan Yang, Financial Times

“Compelling . . . A vital portrait . . . Remarkable.” —The Times Literary Supplement

“A powerful memoir . . . Compelling.” —Prospect

“Tahir Hamut Izgil’s remarkable Waiting to Be Arrested at Night . . . [has] helped me understand better what Uyghurs face under China’s repressive regime—and how easy it is to forget those who have disappeared into silence.” —Nilanjana Roy, Financial Times

“In his searing and beautiful memoir, Uyghur poet Tahir Hamut Izgil recalls the onslaught of CCP repression . . . Heart-wrenching but beautifully written.” —The Telegraph

“Waiting to Be Arrested at Night is so much more than a thrilling account of a great escape. It is nothing less than a call to the West not to look away from one of the most terrible genocides of our times.” —The Times (UK)

“Astonishing . . . Interspersed throughout the narrative are flashes of Izgil’s stunning poetry, much of it themed around diasporic rootlessness. This is a spellbinding account of personal resilience and an eye-opening exposé on the humanitarian crisis in Xinjiang.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“[Waiting to Be Arrested at Night] is lyrical, heartfelt, and perfectly paced; the narrative unfolds with a slow, simmering burn. Never shying away from vulnerability, the author shines a much-needed light on the complex, contradictory emotions of trading a homeland for a lifetime of both safety and survivor’s guilt. A profoundly moving memoir about China’s oppression of the Uyghurs.” —Kirkus (starred review)

“Beautifully written . . . Izgil’s writing is vivid, made even more so by the inclusion of a few of his haunting, startling poems . . . Knowing that there are so many stories we will not ever hear, it feels essential to pay attention to the words of those like Izgil who manage to make it out.” —BookPage (starred review)

“An essential testimony to one of the defining crimes against humanity of the twenty-first century so far: China’s gradually accelerating, systematic, sinisterly bureaucratic and high-tech campaign to make the Uyghur minority disappear. The poet Tahir Hamut Izgil is one of the few Uyghurs who escaped just in time to tell us.” —Philip Gourevitch, author of We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families

“Among our scattered glimpses of the Uyghur catastrophe in China—the digital surveillance, the mass arrests, the reeducation camps—it seems impossible to imagine the survival of any individual creative sensibility. But Tahir Hamut Izgil is a rare artist. He records in vivid detail his fear, his resourcefulness, his loss, and his survivor’s guilt—the full emotional arc of a poet in flight and exile. Even if we can’t comprehend why this tragedy is happening in Xinjiang, Tahir reminds us why it matters.” —Peter Hessler, author of River Town

“This is an exceptionally powerful, profoundly lyrical, and beautifully translated book—I urge you to read it. It illuminates, in unforgettable human detail and complexity, the current Chinese government’s assault on Uyghur society and culture, and the urgent humanitarian crisis it has generated.” —Julia Lovell, author of Maoism: A Global History

“Waiting to Be Arrested at Night is a terrifying, compelling read of one family’s efforts to escape the jaws that were closing around them and millions of others in China’s far western region of Xinjiang. Drawing the reader into a vortex of fear and suspicion, Izgil has put forth a narrative that reads like a horror novel but is more disturbing because it tells a true story of out-of-control authoritarianism. Highly recommended for general readers and anyone seeking a readable first-person account of China’s surveillance state.” —Ian Johnson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize

“Tahir Hamut Izgil’s gripping book evokes haunting memories of the terror and persecution he endured in his homeland, where dreams are turned into nightmares. Despite the gravity of his account, Izgil’s writing remains serene and sincere; his stories are engaging and evoke empathy. To call this merely ‘a good book’ is an understatement—it is essential reading.” —Ai Weiwei, author of 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows
 
“I was riveted and chastened by Tahir Hamut Izgil’s memoir of surveillance, internment, violent persecution, and miraculous flight. The humanitarian crisis affecting China’s Uyghur citizens is an indictment of all nations and all people. Izgil’s crystalline, courageous prose is a wake-up call for everyone invested in the myth—and also the possibility—of freedom.” —Tracy K. Smith, former poet laureate of the United States

“A vital and urgent book about the tragedy of the Uyghur people, abandoned by the world and brutally oppressed by the Chinese government. Waiting to Be Arrested at Night addresses all of the horror and pain of everyday living under occupation, without any rights, without any voice, in the 21st century. This is why the voice of Tahir Hamut Izgil is one that must be heard.” —Janine di Giovanni, author of The Morning They Came For Us

“Elegiac and deeply courageous, a most powerful literary indictment of the unfettered power of the state. A remarkable book.” —Philippe Sands, author of East West Street
 
“Tahir Hamut Izgil’s powerful and poignant memoir is an instant classic. He lays bare the vicious genocidal persecution of the precious Uyghur people in a very personal and persuasive way. His grand poetic temperament exemplifies the unstoppable resilience of the rich Uyghur soul.” —Cornel West, author of Democracy Matters