Anyone familiar with the Cultural Revolution in China knows how brutal and cruel it was, so the senseless cruelty and wastefulness in this story will not be a surprise. It is sad that the culture and ecosystems of Tibet were so completely ruined, for no one's benefit, in a chapter if Chinese history that modern China wishes could be ignored, rewritten or forgotten entirely. This book is heavy reading, but well written and I liked the bits about what Tibetan life was like before China took over. There were cruel aspects to that older culture too, and the author does not gloss over the faults of the Tibetan culture and traditions, but that way of life clearly had evolved to suit the land and its challenges. Excellent book, and I could see this one being on lists of world literature classics in a few decades.

I liked that this novel - by an author of Mongolian origin who grew up in Tibet - felt very different from what I normally read. We follow a group of monks in the first part, and a group of villagers mostly, in the second part, as they go through the changes brought in the 1950s by the Chinese Communist Party. It's very graphic in parts - famine, sexual assault, death, torture - but also funny, in the first part especially, as the monks turn against each other, betray their faith and their peers, plot against their oppressors and each other... The second part is a lot darker, not just in theme but in tone, as the monks are living amongst villagers and we follow a young couple - a former monk and his "fake wife" (married so that the Chinese Army will believe he really is reformed), harrassed by his former colleague who has now joined the Communist Party, tortured repeatedly, disturbed by the plight of his neighbours but unable to help them...
It's non-linear - the introduction suggests this may be to evoke the psychological trauma suffered by the Tibetans, as well as the Chinese Youths forced to run the labor camps - which made it difficult to follow at times, especially in the first part as the main character recalls various times in his past. There's some misogyny which didn't feel intentional for the purpose of the book; but overall I found it... interesting to read and I am glad I gave it a try.

I enjoy reading historical fiction/ literary fiction. So, I really thought that I would enjoy this book. I would learn more about other cultures and learn a bit of history along the way as well. Unfortunately, this is not the case, I really struggled to get into this book and still decided to give it a chance. Instead this is a very confusing read for me, and it’s very hard for me to follow what’s going on. I’m really sorry but will not be finishing this book. It’s a bummer because I really thought that this is a book I would enjoy. Dnf’ed

The Red Wind Howls was a bit of a mixed bag for me. On the plus side, I think it's wonderful for such a work to be released to gain a wider readership, as it sounds as if the author has faced a lot of trouble over the writing of it. At times, this reminded me of The Good Soldier Švejk in the way it uses moments of silliness and humour on the part of the main character to disclose deeper, darker issues. I was invested in the book for the first half, but by the second half it began to feel a little repetitive and I started to grow weary of the fragmentary style of the narrative, so I did find myself skim-reading a bit as we moved into the final third. Overall, I am giving the book three stars. I think it's an important work that tells of a somewhat hidden part of recent history, but its narrative style is not going to be for everyone.

I’ve read a sizable number of books set during the upheavals of Maoist of China - historical works, memoirs, and historical fiction titles. But until now, I had never read any works that took place anywhere close to the Tibetan regions of the country, which in immediate retrospect should be of very little surprise considering it’s not exactly a tale that certain people and powers want easily told and heard, to understate the situation just a bit. So, the simple fact that a work like “The Red Wind Howls” is actually now readily available as an officially translated and published work frankly feels nothing short of amazing.

I wasn’t even finished with this work before I already decided that this was definitely a new must-have for the academic library that I work. Due to it being based on both archival materials and interviews that author Tsering Dondrup courageously gathered from those who endured the hardships described in these pages, “The Red Wind Howls” is far more than a new world for avid historical fiction readers like myself to dive into. By providing my first glance (and almost a firsthand glance given the source material) into this part of Tibet at this time, I found the book to be a genuine learning experience.