Best non-fiction book on international affairs
Award Year: 2025
Award Name: The Cornelius Ryan Award 2025-2026
Recipient: Barbara Demick
Affiliation: Random House
Honored Work: “Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: From China to America, a True Story of Abduction, Adoption, and Separated Twins”
A moving account of how China’s brutal enforcement of its one-child policy led to the kidnapping of countless thousands of young children in the countryside. Demick reveals that these brutal confiscations ultimately served to fill the rising demand from Americans eager to adopt Chinese babies.
Link to the Winning Work:
Citation for Excellence:
Drew Hinshaw and Joe Parkinson
Harper
“SWAP: A Secret History of the New Cold War”