Hey, I'm Timbermias and it's NPR's Book of the Day. Today, we bring you an intimate look at China's

treatment of its Uyghur ethnic minority. Gulchera Hoja is a Uyghur American journalist and author of

A Stone is the Most Precious where it belongs. It's a deeply personal look at loss and family, against the backdrop of

China's brutal repression of its Uyghur ethnic minority. But it's also a story of the beauty and

pain that transcendence can bring about. She spoke about her memoir with Morning Edition host, Stevenskeep.

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A story we heard from Gulchera Hoja begins with the answer to a seemingly simple question.

Where are you from?

How to begin.

First, let me give you a little bit tour for where is my home country located.

She's from Western China in Xinjiang province.

At least that's where I'd find her home city if I looked on the globe, on my desk.

But that same city looks a little different on the map

in Hoja's mind. In describing your home, you did not say my province. You said my country. Why do you say

that? We proudly know our country was free.

She grew up in China's Uyghur region, and she stresses its differences in language, religion,

and culture with other parts of China.

...