In a remote region in north-western China, in May 2001, the journalist Pierre Haski and his group are preparing to leave Zhangjiashu, the tiny village they have been visiting. Suddenly a peasant woman approaches and urgently thrusts into their hands a letter, written on the back of a seed packet, and three small brown notebooks filled with characters in finely drawn pencil.When their precious bundle is translated, they are astonished to find they hold thirteen-year-old Ma Yan's diary and a lament she'd written to her mother, headed, 'I Want To Study'.Thus began the remarkable friendship that not only transformed Ma Yan's life but also the lives of hundreds of the village children who were able to go back to school. And Ma Yan's diary has now been published in over fourteen languages throughout the world.The Diary of Ma Yan tells the tale of a young girl who wants to overcome her impoverished life, who prefers to go hungry in order to save money to buy a pen who feels deeply for her mother, and her family. Read Less