Fred Hiatt's 'Nine Days'

Washington Post editor Fred Hiatt’s latest novel tells the fictional tale of a girl’s search for her missing father in China. We’ll talk with him and the real woman behind the story.

So many big issues have been churning in Washington.  Gun background checks in an epic showdown and defeat last week.  New immigration reform plans with a new bipartisan push.  New moves on the federal budget as the sequester kicks in deeper.  Controversial cyber-security legislation, passed in the House.

Washington Post editorial page editor Fred Hiatt follows it all, plus a story on the side – of one imprisoned Chinese dissident and his young daughter’s campaign to see him freed.

This hour, On Point:  a China prison story, and this large moment in Washington.
- Tom Ashbrook

Fred Hiatt, Editorial page editor of The Washington Post. Author of the new novel, "Nine Days." (@hiattf)

Ti-Anna Wang, daughter of imprisoned Chinese activist Wang Bingzhang and the real-life inspiration for Fred Hiatt's novel, "Nine Days."

The Washington Post (Ti-Anna Wang) "When I was born in 1989, my parents named me Ti-Anna in commemoration of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Most of my friends started their first year of college last fall, but, instead of beginning my studies, I have taken a year off from school and moved to Washington. My father is a political prisoner serving a life sentence in China for opposing communism, and I am spending this year advocating for his freedom."

The Washington Post "She never imagined that her struggle to draw international attention to her father’s plight would become the inspiration for Hiatt’s “Nine Days,” a young-adult novel that came out this week. The following are excerpts from an interview with Ti-Anna, now 23 and once again visiting Washington, this time to mark the 10th anniversary of her father’s imprisonment."

The New York Times "The human rights picture in many countries remained deeply troubling last year, the State Department said Friday, with the Middle East facing 'the harsh realities of incomplete and contested transitions,' Russia and Iran cracking down on activists, and many governments harshly suppressing both new and traditional media."