"This is a triumph of both research and storytelling. Madame Chiang Kai-shek led an amazing life filled with fascinating people as she helped bring China into the modern age. This brilliant narrative provides a wonderful insight into why China is the way it is today." -- Walter Isaacson, author of Einstein

"The tale of Soong May-ling, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's American-educated wife, is epic in scope. And in The Last Empress, which follows the narrative of her life from the end of the Qing Dynasty through her exile in Taiwan and the reign of Mao Tse-Tung, Hannah Pakula brings vividly to life the tormented odyssey of China during the twentieth century and the enthralling life story of this singular woman in a wonderfully accessible way." -- Orville Schell, Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society

"The Last Empress is the definitive biography of Soong May-ling, who came to fame as Madame Chiang Kai-shek. A rare combination of brilliant writing and insightful scholarship, it captures the complexities of an extraordinary woman in a turbulent time, who influenced the course of China's history in the twentieth century." -- Henry A. Kissinger

"Like her imperial predecessor the Dowager Empress, the last ruler of the Manchu dynasty, Soong May-ling came out of nowhere to become role model, figurehead, and power-broker in twentieth-century China. This is rip-roaring true romance told with zip, clarity, and panache." -- Hilary Spurling, author of Matisse the Master