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Title details for The Snakehead by Patrick Radden Keefe - Available

The Snakehead

An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream

by Patrick Radden Keefe
Feodor Chin
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 CWA GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION
'Reads like a mashup of The Godfather and Chinatown, complete with gun battles, a ruthless kingpin and a mountain of cash. Except that it's all true.' – Time
In this thrilling story of real-life events, the bestselling author of Empire of Pain investigates a secret world run by a surprising criminal: a charismatic middle-aged grandmother, who from a tiny noodle shop in New York's Chinatown, managed a multimillion-dollar business smuggling people.
In The Snakehead, Patrick Radden Keefe reveals the inner workings of Cheng Chui Ping aka Sister Ping's complex empire and recounts the decade-long FBI investigation that eventually brought her down. He follows an often incompetent and sometimes corrupt INS as it pursues desperate immigrants risking everything to come to America, and along the way he paints a stunning portrait of a generation of undocumented immigrants and the intricate underground economy that sustains and exploits them.
Grand in scope yet propulsive in narrative force, The Snakehead is both a true crime story and a brilliant exploration of the ironies of immigration in America.
'A powerful piece of reportage about the violent underworld of New York's Chinatown' - The Times

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    February 16, 2023

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781529099911
      • File size: 373559 KB
      • Duration: 12:58:14

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      A well-researched descent into the world of Chinese organized crime, THE SNAKEHEAD centers on the barbarous Sister Ping, who ran an international smuggling ring out of a noodle shop and ruled with an iron hand in the 1980s in New York City. The author reads his work himself, and it's a good thing. Keefe's voice is temperate but never monotonous as he describes the recently arrived Chinese immigrants, crammed 20 to a house, with nothing better to do than watch Asian martial arts movies and play video games before the sun goes down and they ply their ruthless trade. Similarly, accounts of boat people, jammed into shaky vessels to fester among one another, will make listeners recoil--but only at their horrific realism. J.S.H. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine
    • AudioFile Magazine
      Feodor Chin is the listener's guide into Chinatown's heart: the neighborhoods that tourists don't see; the inner workings of human trafficking from China to America in the 1980s and '90s; and the growing violence of the emerging gang culture. The perfect guide, Chin keeps his voice instructive and interesting, never preachy or accusative. This grim true crime involves "Sister Ping," the "Snakehead" of the title, the person who, for an exorbitant price, arranges passage for the illegals--who then must pay her back or pay the consequences. Chin wisely doesn't give voices or accents to the many characters involved, but instead opts for a matter-of-fact tone that keeps Keefe's absorbing narrative moving and listeners listening. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from May 11, 2009
      Keefe (Chatter
      ) examines America's complicated relationship with immigration in this brilliant account of Cheng Chui Ping, known as Sister Ping, who built a multimillion-dollar empire as a “snakehead,” smuggling Chinese immigrants into America. Sister Ping herself entered the U.S. legally in 1981 from China's Fuzhou province, but was soon known among Fujianese immigrants in Manhattan's Chinatown as the go-to for advice, loans and connections to bring their families to America. Her empire grew so large that she contracted out muscle work to the local gang, the Fuk Ching. Keefe points to the Golden Venture
      —a ship full of Fujianese illegals that ran fatally aground in 1993—as the beginning of the end for Sister Ping. She was sentenced in 2000 to 35 years in prison for conspiracy, money laundering and trafficking. Despite an enormous cast of characters in a huge underground web of global crime, Keefe's account maintains the swift pace of a thriller. With the immigration debate still boiling, this exploration of how far people will go to achieve the American dream is a must-read.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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