Event Coverage Highlight

Amy Yee will be in New York to give a talk at Asia Society on Dec. 4 at 6:30 p.m. about her narrative nonfiction book Far from the Rooftop of the World with a Foreword by the Dalai Lama, about Tibetan refugees in India and beyond.

Read more and purchase tickets here >

The Asia Society excerpted the Prologue and the Dalai Lama’s Foreword on its website:

“When the Dalai Lama saw me, his wrinkled face lit up with interest. There were dozens of other reporters ready to surround him in a large room inside his residential complex, but he ambled over to where I stood and smiled kindly…he eagerly approached me. “Chinese?” the Dalai Lama asked me brightly.”

Praise for the book:

Peter Hessler, New Yorker writer, MacArthur Fellow and National Book Award finalist said the book is: “Beautifully observed, with full-bodied, engaging characters who are never lost in the shadow of Chinese politics. Amy Yee has done a wonderful job of capturing the details, dramas and dignities of Tibetan life in exile.”

Boston Globe’s review by Hannah Bae: “Readers who seek to understand the plight of our fellow humans in other parts of the world should hang on every word. Books like these are the product of truly personal and professional investment combined. I hope Yee’s contribution to the field is held up as an outstanding example of journalism done right.”

Edward Luce, former Financial Times South Asia bureau chief: “A wonderful and moving portrait of a people whose predicament needs to be brought into the sunlight. This is a work of passion and insight that deserves to be widely read.”

Wilson Center in DC: “Over the course of more than a decade, [Yee’s] interactions and correspondences with her Tibetan contacts blossomed into a non-fiction narrative that is among the first of its kind…Yee’s focus on authentic lived experiences—stories that could only be written with deep and trusted connections—establishes a model for responsible and effective refugee representation.”

Foreword Reviews: “Stories shared between friends over a meal are told with the same care and reverence as are those about interactions with the Dalai Lama…Through incredible personal narratives, [the book] paints a deep, nuanced picture of the Tibetan diaspora and the real human impact of China’s policy toward Tibet.”

Yee is an award-winning journalist most recently with Bloomberg and previously with the Financial Times. She has won the United Nations Correspondents Association award three times; South Asian Journalists Association awards four times; and Asian American Journalists Association’s award this year for political reporting, among others. I am a MacDowell and Logan Nonfiction Fellow and have four Notable Essays in the Best American Essays.