Synopses & Reviews
From the acclaimed author of
River Town comes a rare portrait, both intimate and epic, of twenty-first-century China as it opens its doors to the outside world.
A century ago, outsiders saw China's a place where nothing ever changes. Today the country has become one of the most dynamic regions on earth. That sense of time the contrast between past and present, and the rhythms that emerge in a vast, ever-evolving country is brilliantly illuminated by Peter Hessler in Oracle Bones, a book that explores the human side of China's transformation.
Hessler tells the story of modern-day China and its growing links to the Western world as seen through the lives of a handful of ordinary people. In addition to the author, an American writer living in Beijing, the narrative follows Polat, a member of a forgotten ethnic minority, who moves to the United States in searchof freedom; William Jefferson Foster, who grew up in an illiterate family and becomes a teacher; Emily, a migrant factory worker in a city without a past; and Chen Mengjia, a scholar of oracle-bone inscriptions, the earliest known writing in East Asia, and a man whosetragic story has been lost since the Cultural Revolution. All are migrants, emigrants, or wanderers who find themselves far from home, their lives dramatically changed by historical forces they are struggling to understand.
Peter Hessler excavates the past and puts a remarkable human face on the history he uncovers. In a narrative that gracefully moves between the ancient and the present, the East and the West, Hessler captures the soul of a country that is undergoing a momentous change before our eyes.
Review
"One of the book's main pleasures is its language; Hessler writes clearly and sympathetically." Washington Post
Review
"Hessler has achieved something quite special in Oracle Bones, conveying the idiosyncrasies of China in a way that makes its people palpably human and distinctly memorable." Los Angeles Times
Review
"Hessler must have spent a good deal of mental energy developing a structure for his book, determined to strike an aesthetic balance between the personal lives of the individual Chinese whose stories he tells and the physical and historical spaces they inhabit." New York Times
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"Looking to the past for a hint of what's to come remains a good way of understanding China. Oracle Bones is an excellent place to start." USA Today
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"Oracle Bones melds the multiple personalities and tangled story lines into a kaleidoscopic vision of a country surging toward an uncertain future....The book demands patience but rewards it well." San Francisco Chronicle
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"Mr. Hessler's experiences in China from 1999-2002, contains so many storylines and subplots that it could almost have been written as several separate books. Still, the author weaves together these different elements to create a page-turner with great insight into Chinese society." Wall Street Journal
Review
"It is a stunning book, populated by a cast of hundreds but told through the minds of five key characters....Hessler is a near-perfect intermediary." Portland Oregonian
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"This is an important and informative work offering a unique perspective on where China may be headed." Booklist
Review
"Hessler introduces debates on the nature of the Chinese language and the scholars who have carried on the debate." Library Journal
Synopsis
Oracle Bones tells the story of modern-day China and its growing links to the Western world, as
seen through the lives of ordinary people who are connected in one way or another to America.
It combines soulful story-telling with a journalist's keen eye for detail resulting in a story that transcends cultural divides and puts a human face on history as it unfolds today.
About the Author
Peter Hessler is the Beijing correspondent for the New Yorker and a contributor to National Geographic.