The book is a new edition of I Had Such a Mother, which was published in mainland China twenty years ago but quickly banned by Propaganda Department of the Communist Party. The author of the book, a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, is the daughter of Li Rui, Mao Zedong's previous personal secretary, who died on Feb. 16, 2019. Many observers believe that Li Rui's death marked the end of a generation of revolutionaries who joined the party out of commitment to socialist ideals but later pushed for reforms. Fan Yuanzhen, the author's mother and Li Rui's first wife, married Li Rui at the age 18 and also came to dream of a democratic and equal society. The articles collected in this book explain how Fan lost humanity thus exposing the evil nature of the Communist Party.

这本书是新版的《我有这样一个母亲》，该书于20年前在中国大陆出版，发行后即遭到中国共产党宣传部的禁止。书的作者是斯坦福大学胡佛研究所的客座研究员，李锐的女儿。李锐曾是毛泽东的私人秘书，于2019年2月16日去世。人们认为他的死标志着为追求社会主义理想加入共产党并在后期推动改革一代人的谢世。 范元甄是作者的母亲，也是李锐的第一任妻子，18岁时与李锐结婚，怀着与李锐同样追求民主，平等社会的理想。 书中收集的文章讲述了范元甄是如何异化成为一个丧失了人性的女巫，以她的个案扩展到揭露共产党的邪恶本质。