In August 1966, a group of Red Guards ransacked Nien Chengs home. Her background made her an obvious target. Educated at the London School of Economics, the widow of an official of Chiang Kai-sheks regime, and an employee of Shell Oil, Cheng enjoyed comforts that few Chinese could afford. When she refused to confess that she was an enemy of the state, she was imprisoned and placed in solitary confinement, where she remained for more than six years.Life and Death in Shanghaiis the powerful story of Chengs imprisonment, of the deprivation she endured, of her heroic resistance, and of her quest for justice when she was released. An astounding portrait of one womans courage,Life and Death in Shanghaiis also a penetrating account of a terrifying chapter in twentieth-century history.