Read the World: China

Books by authors from China or set in/about China.

Updated February 16, 2024
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Soul mountain = [Ling shan]
Gao, Xingjian
Paper Book
"If a successful novelist is one who tells us something new about the human spirit and a successful novel transports us to another world, then Gao and Soul Mountain have succeeded spectacularly." -- Washington Post Book World An extraordinary work of immense wisdom and profound...
My Beijing four stories of everyday wonder
Jun, Nie, 1975- author, illustrator.
Paper Book
A 2019 Batchelder Honor Book Yu'er and her grandpa live in a small neighborhood in Beijing--and it's full of big personalities. There's a story around every corner, and each day has a hint of magic. In one tale, Yu'er wants to swim in the...
The piano teacher a novel
Lee, Janice Y. K.
Paper Book
"A rare and exquisite story . . . Transports you out of time, out of place, into a world you can feel on your very skin." --Elizabeth Gilbert The New York Times bestseller  Janice Y.K. Lee's latest novel, The Expatriates, is now...
Yeh-Shen a Cinderella story from China
Louie, Ai-Ling
Paper Book
Told with beauty and grace, this Cinderella story from Ai-Ling Louie is brought vividly to life by Caldecott Medal-winner Ed Young's soft, glowing illustrations. Half-starved and overworked by her stepmother, Yeh-Shen's only friend is a fish with golden eyes. When the stepmother...
The moon in the palace [electronic resource]
Randel, Weina Dai.
Paper Book
A thrilling work of historical fiction, bringing romance, intrigue, and the unexpected rise of an Empress to intoxicating life under the inscrutable moon. In Tang Dynasty China, a concubine at the palace learns quickly that there are many ways to capture the Emperor's attention. Many...
Snow flower and the secret fan a novel
See, Lisa.
Paper Book
Lily is haunted by memories-of who she once was, and of a person, long gone, who defined her existence. She has nothing but time now, as she recounts the tale of Snow Flower, and asks the gods for forgiveness. In nineteenth-century China, when wives and daughters were foot-bound...
The kitchen god's wife
Tan, Amy.
Paper Book
"Remarkable...mesmerizing...compelling.... An entire world unfolds in Tolstoyan tide of event and detail....Give yourself over to the world Ms. Tan creates for you." --The New York Times Book Review Winnie and Helen have kept each other's worst secrets for more than...
The song of everlasting sorrow [electronic resource] A Novel of Shanghai
Wang, Anyi, 1954-
Paper Book
Set in post-World War II Shanghai, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow follows the adventures of Wang Qiyao, a girl born of the longtong, the crowded, labyrinthine alleys of Shanghai's working-class neighborhoods. Infatuated with the glitz and glamour of 1940s Hollywood, Wang...
Grandmaster of demonic cultivation: mo dao zu shi (the comic / manhua), volume 1 [electronic resource].
Xiu, Mo Xiang Tong.
Paper Book
HAUNTED BY SIN Following the trail of a dismembered corpse, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji arrive at the gates of Yi City: an old, abandoned town shrouded in mist and restless spirits. A fiendish foe awaits them in the shadows, heralding a tale of heartbreak and tragedy. When the...
Song of the Silk Road
Yip, Mingmei.
Paper Book
In this richly imaginative novel, Mingmei Yip--author of Peach Blossom Pavilion and Petals From the Sky--follows one woman's daunting journey along China's fabled Silk Road. As a girl growing up in Hong Kong, Lily Lin was captivated by photographs of the desert--its long,...
Love in a fallen city [electronic resource]
Zhang, Ailing.
Paper Book
Masterful short works about passion, family, and human relationships by one of the greatest writers of 20th century China.  A New York Review Books Original   "[A] giant of modern Chinese literature" -The New York Times   ...
The cook, the crook, and the real estate tycoon [electronic resource] A Novel of Contemporary China
Zhenyun, Liu.
Paper Book
The Cook, the Crook, and the Real Estate Tycoon by prize-winning Chinese novelist Liu Zhenyun is a novel of Beijing that paints a microcosm of contemporary China, dealing with classes at the two extremes: the super rich and the migrant workers who make them rich through deceit and corruption....

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