'No more money for school this year. I till the land in order to pay for my brothers' schooling. When I think of the happy times at school, I can almost imagine myself there. How I want to study! I want to go to school, Mother. How wonderful if I could stay at school forever!' - Ma Yan, aged 13

In a remote province in Northeastern China, in May 2001, the journalist Pierre Haski and his group are preparing to leave the tiny village they have been visiting. Suddenly a peasant woman approaches and urgently thrusts into their hands a letter, written on the back of a seed packet, and three small brown notebooks filled with characters in a finely drawn pencil. When their precious bundle is translated, they are astonished to find they hold thirteen-year-old Ma Yan's diary and a passionate letter she'd written to her mother, headed, I Want To Study.

The Diary of Ma Yan tells the moving tale of a spirited girl who wants to overcome her impoverished life, who prefers to go hungry in order to save money to buy a pen, who feels deeply for her mother, and her young brother. It is a story of indomitable spirit, wonderful humour and thirsty intelligence.