Da Chen was born in China in 1962.ￂﾠ "Colors of the Mountain," his first memoir, was published in 2001. A New York Times bestseller, it recounts how, as the grandson of a disgraced landowner in a remote Fujian village, he suffered communist political persecution and extreme poverty during the Cultural Revolution. A sequel, "Sounds of the River," was published in 2003. The Los Angeles Times wrote, "Chinese émigré literature has brought to these shores many new and interesting voices -- the haunting lyricism of Ha Jin, the harsh worldview of Anchee Min, the righteous indignation of Adeline Yen Mah. Da Chen's voice comes from the soil of China ... his exuberance for life and its possibilities set him apart from others in the genre." His first work of fiction for young readers was "Wandering Warrior," published in 2003 by Random House Children's Books. "Brothers," his first work of adult fiction, was published by Random House's Crown Publishing Group in September. Da Chen attended Beijing Languages and Culture University, where he subsequently was a professor of English, and is a graduate of Columbia University Law School.
