“Compelling . . . Gritty in its historical detail . . . An eye-opening novel about a little known story at the far side of World War II” (Anita Shreve, New York Times–bestselling author of The Pilot’s Wife). Inspired by true events, Two Sons of China is a sweeping historical saga from a forgotten theater of World War II, an action-packed tale about an unlikely friendship between two soldiers—one American, the other, Communist Chinese—and the powerful forces that threaten to tear them apart. In 1944, American troops have arrived in China to help fight the Japanese. Lt. David Parker loathes his assignment to isolated Chungking. The war there is stalled because Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist government is corrupt and unwilling to fight. So when Parker hears of a special American mission venturing north to assist Mao Zedong’s Communist forces, he is desperate to join them. Rumors have spread that the Communists are fighting the Japanese with heroic zeal. Lin Yuen, a reclusive and skilled Communist guerilla leader, can scarcely hide his annoyance when Lieutenant Parker is assigned to join his next dangerous mission behind enemy lines. Both men have deeply held, clashing convictions, but the battles they fight, the horrors they witness, and the brotherhood they forge ultimately transform them both. As the end of World War II forces America to take sides in an impending Nationalist-Communist civil war, Parker and Yuen find their loyalties tested. Together, they must confront a final trial—one that imperils the honor they cherish and the people they love. “Two Sons of China takes you to WWII China, introduces you to a fascinating cast of characters, and spins a terrific tale of adventure and romance. If you love historical fiction, or any fiction, don’t miss it. A superb debut.” —William Martin, New York Times–bestselling author of Back Bay and The Lincoln Letter

This study of diplomatic relations between the Sung dynasty of tenth-and eleventh-century China and the Liao, invaders from Manchuria, challenges the popular belief that China always considered her neighbors as inferior barbarians in their attempt to maintain a China-centered world order.

Authentic retelling of the classic Chinese folktale of the seven brothers and their supernatural gifts.

A New York Times Notable Book Chinese immigrants of the recent past and unfolding twenty-first century are in search of the African dream. So explains indefatigable traveler Howard W. French, prize-winning investigative journalist and former New York Times bureau chief in Africa and China, in the definitive account of this seismic geopolitical development. China’s burgeoning presence in Africa is already shaping, and reshaping, the future of millions of people. From Liberia to Senegal to Mozambique, in creaky trucks and by back roads, French introduces us to the characters who make up China’s dogged emigrant population: entrepreneurs singlehandedly reshaping African infrastructure, and less-lucky migrants barely scraping by but still convinced of Africa’s opportunities. French’s acute observations offer illuminating insight into the most pressing unknowns of modern Sino-African relations: Why China is making these cultural and economic incursions into the continent; what Africa’s role is in this equation; and what the ramifications for both parties and their people—and the watching world—will be in the foreseeable future. One of the Best Books of the Year at • The Economist • The Guardian • Foreign Affairs

This book examines the deterioration of relations between the USSR and China in the 1960s, whereby once powerful allies became estranged, competitive, and increasingly hostile neighbors. It shows how the intrinsic inequality of the Sino-Soviet alliance - seen as entirely natural by the Russians but bitterly resented by the Chinese - resulted in its ultimate collapse.

DIVThe second installment in Pearl S. Buck’s acclaimed Good Earth trilogy: the powerful story of three brothers whose greed will bring their family to the brink of ruin/divDIV Sons begins where The Good Earth ended: Revolution is sweeping through China. Wang Lung is on his deathbed in the house of his fathers, and his three sons stand ready to inherit his hard-won estate. One son has taken the family’s wealth for granted and become a landlord; another is a thriving merchant and moneylender; the youngest, an ambitious general, is destined to be a leader in the country. Through all his life’s changes, Wang did not anticipate that each son would hunger to sell his beloved land for maximum profit./divDIV /divDIVAt once a tribute to early Chinese fiction, a saga of family dissension, and a depiction of the clashes between old and new, Sons is a vivid and compelling masterwork of fiction. /divDIV /divDIVThis ebook features an illustrated biography of Pearl S. Buck including rare images from the author’s estate./div

In the thirty-five years since China instituted its One-Child Policy, 120,000 children—mostly girls—have left China through international adoption, including 85,000 to the United States. It’s generally assumed that this diaspora is the result of China’s approach to population control, but there is also the underlying belief that the majority of adoptees are daughters because the One-Child Policy often collides with the traditional preference for a son. While there is some truth to this, it does not tell the full story—a story with deep personal resonance to Kay Ann Johnson, a China scholar and mother to an adopted Chinese daughter. Johnson spent years talking with the Chinese parents driven to relinquish their daughters during the brutal birth-planning campaigns of the 1990s and early 2000s, and, with China’s Hidden Children, she paints a startlingly different picture. The decision to give up a daughter, she shows, is not a facile one, but one almost always fraught with grief and dictated by fear. Were it not for the constant threat of punishment for breaching the country’s stringent birth-planning policies, most Chinese parents would have raised their daughters despite the cultural preference for sons. With clear understanding and compassion for the families, Johnson describes their desperate efforts to conceal the birth of second or third daughters from the authorities. As the Chinese government cracked down on those caught concealing an out-of-plan child, strategies for surrendering children changed—from arranging adoptions or sending them to live with rural family to secret placement at carefully chosen doorsteps and, finally, abandonment in public places. In the twenty-first century, China’s so-called abandoned children have increasingly become “stolen” children, as declining fertility rates have left the dwindling number of children available for adoption more vulnerable to child trafficking. In addition, government seizures of locally—but illegally—adopted children and children hidden within their birth families mean that even legal adopters have unknowingly adopted children taken from parents and sent to orphanages. The image of the “unwanted daughter” remains commonplace in Western conceptions of China. With China’s Hidden Children, Johnson reveals the complex web of love, secrecy, and pain woven in the coerced decision to give one’s child up for adoption and the profound negative impact China’s birth-planning campaigns have on Chinese families.