Edgar Snow's Red Star shines on

In 1936, a 31-year-old American writer ventured into a "no-go" zone in a remote part of Northwest China's Loess Plateau with many questions in his mind.

Who were the Chinese Communists? How did "the Reds" dress, eat, play, love and work? What were the chances of the Red Army winning at all? What was their leader Mao Zedong like?

Edgar Snow entered, stayed and re-emerged with little doubt that the almost-isolated fighting force led by the Communist Party of China would ultimately succeed.