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Playing for Thrills

Playing for Thrills
  • Author(s): Wang Shuo
  • Location(s): Beijing (Peking)
  • Genre(s): Crime, Mystery
  • Era(s): 1990s

A tripped out sarcastic novel of urban alienation centred around a mysterious murder. Set in a Beijing populated by low-life gangsters and villains, it is narrated by the chief suspect of the crime though even he seems unclear as...

The Fat Years

The Fat Years
  • Author(s): Chan Koonchung
  • Location(s): Beijing (Peking)
  • Genre(s): Fiction
  • Era(s): 2013

In Chan Koonchung’s dystopian novel “The Fat Years,” which takes place in 2013, a month of history has been wiped out from China’s memory. During that month in 2011, the world went through a tremendous economic, political and social...

The Russian Concubine (The Girl from Junchow)

The Russian Concubine (The Girl from Junchow)
  • Author(s): Kate Furnivall
  • Location(s): Tianjin
  • Genre(s): Fiction, Historical, Romance
  • Era(s): 1928

Junchow, China, 1928 (fictional Tianjin). Lydia Ivanova has a fierce spirit. Nothing can dim it, not even the foul waters of the Peiho River. Into the river’s grime bodies are tossed – those of thieves and Communists alike. So...

A Map for the Missing

A Map for the Missing
  • Author(s): Belinda Huijuan Tang
  • Location(s): China
  • Genre(s): Historical, Fiction
  • Era(s): 1970s - 1990s

An epic, mesmerizing debut novel set against a rapidly changing post-Cultural Revolution China, A Map for the Missingreckons with the costs of pursuing one’s dreams and the lives we leave behind Tang Yitian has been living in America for...

A Place of Birds

A Place of Birds
  • Author(s): Jane Jackson
  • Location(s): Falmouth, Shanghai
  • Genre(s): Historical, Romance
  • Era(s): 19th Century

In Victorian Cornwall nineteen-year-old Susanna Elliot rebels against her strict Quaker background. Alienated from her family and community, rejected by the doctor she admires, and refused permission to take her dead brother’s place in the family business, she flees...

A Single Swallow

A Single Swallow
  • Author(s): Zhang Ling, Shelly Bryant (translator)
  • Location(s): China
  • Genre(s): Fiction, In Translation
  • Era(s): 1945 and present day

On the day of the historic 1945 Jewel Voice Broadcast—in which Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender to the Allied forces, bringing an end to World War II—three men, flush with jubilation, made a pact. After their deaths, each year...

Adrift in the Middle Kingdom

Adrift in the Middle Kingdom
  • Author(s): Jan Jacob Slauerhoff
  • Location(s): China
  • Genre(s): Historical, Fiction
  • Era(s): Early 20th century

Jan Jacob Slauerhoff (1898-1936) was a ship’s doctor serving in south-east Asia, and is one of the most important twentieth-century Dutch-language writers. His 1934 novel Adrift in the Middle Kingdom (Het leven op aarde), is an epic sweep of...

Always Orchid

Always Orchid
  • Author(s): Carol Van Den Hende
  • Location(s): China, New York City (NYC)
  • Genre(s): Fiction
  • Era(s): Present Day

Shortlisted for the 2023 Hawthorne Prize for Fiction He almost let her go. Her past could tear them apart. But a love like theirs is worth fighting for… Phoenix Walker will never be the same. Nine months after a...

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
  • Author(s): Dai Sijie
  • Location(s): China
  • Genre(s): Fiction
  • Era(s): 1966 - 1976

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is an enchanting tale that captures the magic of reading and the wonder of romantic awakening. An immediate international bestseller, it tells the story of two hapless city boys exiled to a remote...

Bandit’s Daughter: Kung Fu Girl in Ancient China

Bandit’s Daughter: Kung Fu Girl in Ancient China
  • Author(s): Simon Mason
  • Location(s): China
  • Genre(s): Children
  • Era(s): Ancient China, 11th century

At the beginning of the 11th century, General Yang sends his son Zongbao to exterminate the bandit living in Dragon-Taming Wood. In the forest, Zongbao is surprised by the bandit’s teenage daughter, a kung fu prodigy, who challenged him...

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