Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China and the West - Hardcover

Hessler, Peter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0719564409 ISBN 13: 9780719564406

Publisher: John Murray, 2006

Synopsis

Oracle Bones tells its engaging and compelling story through the lives of a handful of ordinary people. The author himself is a Westerner, a journalist living in Beijing. The narrative tracks his story along with that of Polat, a trader and member of a forgotten ethnic minority, who moves to the West in search of political freedom and a new life; William Jefferson Foster, who grew up in an illiterate family in a remote village; 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 whose mysterious story has been lost since his suicide forty years ago, at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.

All of them are migrants, emigrants, or wanderers who find themselves far from home, their lives dramatically changed by historical forces they are struggling to understand. Hessler excavates the past in search of meaning, his intimate approach putting a remarkable human face on the history he uncovers.

With him we discover not only where the great, influential cultures of East and West intersect, but also how the conjunction of past and present creates today's China - and how people create meaning out of chaotic world events.

About this title

Review:

'A remarkable travelogue documenting aspects of a country still little understood' (Kirkus Reviews)

'Hessler gets the stories that no one talks about and delivers them in a personal study that informs, entertains, and mesmerizes. Everyone in the Western world should read this book' (Publisher's Weekly)

Praise for River Town:

Written with great clarity and affection, River Town should be read by anyone with an interest in finding the Chinese less inscrutable (The Times)

Hessler's account superbly captures the spirit of a country in which he is an invader, albeit welcomed, understanding rather than merely describing it and, with consummate skill and literary style, bringing it alive in all its mesmerising complexity (Sunday Times)

To come across a Westerner patient enough and tolerant enough to try and understand the immense, exasperating and ultimately lovable entity that is China is always a pleasure. To encounter one that is as literate and sensitive as Peter Hessler is a joy (Simon Winchester)

Studded with insight and humility, written with unshowy elegance, River Town is about ways of seeing (Daily Telegraph)

'One of the most profoundly original books about China' (The Economist)

'His latest book, Oracle Bones, the much anticipated follow-up to his acclaimed debut, River Town, lays bare a rapidly evolving China through his often bizarre encounters with the engines of its social changes.' (South China Morning Post)

'Extensive travel around China with occasional flits back home to the U.S., combine with some fascinating speculation on the origins of Chinese civilisation and how the remote past impinges on the present' (China Review)

Book Description:

From the acclaimed author of River Town comes a rare and authentic portrait - both intimate and epic - of twenty-first century China as it opens its doors to the world

About this edition

• Publisher: John Murray
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0719564409
• ISBN 13: 9780719564406
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 512