A veteran journalist's sweeping history of a rich and resilient culture on the brink.

China's Muslim minority, the Uyghurs, made international headlines in the late 2010s amid shocking allegations of ethnic and cultural genocide, Orwellian indoctrination camps, and mass surveillance.

A Mandarin speaker experienced at navigating China's police state, Dan Martin takes readers into tense oasis cities in the deserts of Xinjiang. Through vivid reporting and raw interviews with ordinary Uyghurs, he traces the tragic history of one of China's largest ethnic groups—dizzying swings between hope and repression, violent eruptions of Uyghur rage, and a vast crackdown by the Chinese Communist Party.

Yet this story does not end in Xinjiang. Products made by Uyghur forced labor feed into global supply chains, and China exports surveillance technology—much of it prototyped in Xinjiang—around the world. Where the River Dies is a haunting portrait of a people under siege, with consequences that extend far beyond its borders.