Set during the Opium Wars, and with his panning of characters on all sides of the issue, I learned so much about the perspectives of those involved. It was also a deep dive into culture in China, Great Britain, and the world at this significant time. There is a strong sense of adventure and even a touch of romance and drama to this story. I’ll never forget Mei-Lhing, Trader, and a eunuch named Lacquer Nail.

Overall, Rutherfurd is adept at presenting well-researched history from all sides in an approachable, highly readable way.

For its length, China by Edward Rutherfurd covers Chinese history only from the First Opium Wars to the beginning of Mao's Cultural Revolution. A significant portion of the book is the perspective of the British and Americans who find themselves in China at this time rather the Chinese perspective which is unfortunate. I still enjoy the book and learn a lot. It is just not quite what I expected.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2022/06/china.html

Reviewed for NetGalley.

This is not a history of China. This is a British perspective of their time in China. It was fascinating but sometimes it bordered on exoticism. Intriguing read. I wish it would recommend several other sources for a more well-rounded history.


I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I am a member of the American Library Association Reading List Award Committee. This title was suggested for the 2022 list. It was not nominated for the award. The complete list of winners and shortlisted titles is at <a href="https://rusaupdate.org/2022/01/readers-advisory-announce-2022-reading-list-years-best-in-genre-fiction-for-adult-readers/">

School just started and I have already submitted an order for a title requested by a student: CHINA by Edward Rutherfurd. This 700+ page book is quite an ambitious undertaking, but like Rutherfurd's earlier works (New York, Paris, etc.) it is meticulously researched and filled with intriguing details. In this case, the focus is on nineteenth century China with sections about The Boxer Rebellion, First Opium War, and China's relationship with European states, especially the British. As always, Rutherfurd employs a range of characters, many of whom are common people, to vividly relay history. Rutherfurd's Sarum (in large part about the construction of Salisbury Cathedral) is one of my favorite books and I would especially recommend his work to fans of Ken Follett. CHINA is an Editors' pick (for Best Literature and Fiction) on Amazon although other professional reviews were rather mixed.

I mean, yes, of course this book was amazing. It's Edward Eutherford. I consider him one of the Father's of Historical Sagas. I love historical sagas and China was right up there with some of the greats. The pages just kept turning, and I looked up and it was already night. You literally won't be able to stop reading China. It's that good.

Years ago I read Sarum by this author and remember enjoying it very much. For some reason the books he wrote since then never had occasion to land on my shelf until receiving this early copy of China. As a lover of history, I loved this novel and I believe that non lovers of history will feel the same about this epic story peopled by opium traders and pirates, missionaries and mercenaries, Empresses and eunuchs and so much more. I also learned some new facts about real historical figures that sent me scurrying to Wikipedia. I had heard of Gordon of Khartoum but not of China Gordon and was most surprised to learn that President Hoover of Hooverville fame was a geologist involved in coal mining in China in his younger days. One thing that did give me pause a couple of times was the use of some contemporary phrasing here and there. The main culprit for me near the end was the phrase “truth to power”. It is a personal bugaboo of mine. To me, the word truth is so powerful by itself that any embellishment lessens it. Also the phrase was coined by Bayard Rustin a Quaker and civil rights leader in 1942 making it out of step time wise. That little personal aside out of the way, this ripping great story is well worth the huge amount of time that I spent reading it and the five stars I am giving it.

Apparently I’ve been missing out on a whole lot of historical fiction from Edward Rutherfurd, and his latest just published yesterday. This saga focuses on sixty years of China’s history in the 19th century. It’s impeccably researched with characters and storylines I was fully invested in. I loved the writing and I’m wondering which of his novels I should dive into next!

Well researched, very readable. I think I'm not so interested in nineteenth century China and the opium trade. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Rutherfurd stumbles uncharacteristically in this tepid outing, his first set outside of a Western culture.

In 1839, John Trader comes to China from England, hoping to make his fortune in the opium trade. He arrives just as the First Opium War breaks out, and Rutherfurd spends long chapters detailing the British and Chinese military maneuvers and how these affect the Chinese and British economies and, consequently, Trader’s fortune. Along the way, Rutherfurd introduces a number of Chinese characters, including a pirate named Nio, and a eunuch in the emperor’s palace who goes by the pseudonym “Lacquer Nail” because he is the manicurist for the emperor’s favorite concubine. Rutherfurd follows the fortunes and misfortunes of his cast of characters for nearly seventy years, ending in 1902, just after the Boxer Rebellion.

With China’s long history, it makes sense that Rutherfurd would choose a relatively small time period, but seventy years is hardly a blink of an eye for Rutherfurd, whose previous works have spanned as many as two thousand years. Additionally, while much of the book is written from the point of view of Chinese characters, just as much, including the story’s climax, is told from the British characters’ point of view. Rutherfurd instead often shows the Chinese perspective via musings by oddly woke British characters, but these attempts lack power. And though the British characters’ storylines are neatly wound up by the end of the novel, many of the Chinese characters’ stories are left unresolved. As a result, this doesn’t feel much like a book about China at all but rather British imperialism.

Nonetheless, Rutherfurd’s historical detail is, as always, impeccable. Readers who enjoy military history or who want to know more about the Opium Wars will be rewarded, though many Rutherfurd fans may be disappointed.

Thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday books for my free advance copy of this book in
return for my honest review.
I anxiously awaited this new novel by one of the best current historical fiction authors,
and while it did not disappoint me, it did not quite hit the 5***** book that I had hoped.
            When dealing with China, we are talking about a country that has such a long history that
Rutherfurd needed to find a memorable period upon which to focus. Here we begin with the run-
up to the two Opium Wars and get as far as the Boxer Rebellion, while in between there is the
Taiping Rebellion. It is an eventful period and Rutherfurd does a really good job of detailing this
historical era. The history is spot on, and I learned so much about these conflicts which I had
heard of but never truly understood.
            As with all of his books, China features multiple characters and follows them through
these turbulent times. We have opium traders, British diplomats, Chinese pirates, dowagers,
emperors and eunuchs! Quite a diverse group to follow and on the whole these characters do a
wonderful job in both interacting together, as well as being part of these historic times.
            Well written and superbly researched, this book does check off many of the boxes that I
had expected, yet in many ways it falls flat. Why would that be? Well, while I do not like to have
books wrapped up in a nice neat package, I do like to finish characters storylines, and too many
of these characters are just left hanging. We are only dealing with a 60 year timeline and there
really is no reason not to finish off these stories. A few do get completed but there are many that
are left dangling, and then halfway through the book he introduces a new major character whose
story as a eunuch in the Emperors Court dominated the last half of the book and many of the
original characters merely seem to disappear.
            Call me picky, but I just felt a little bit disappointed after such a long wait since his book
Paris. Very good, not great, and certainly not like Michener who reigns supreme in my ranking
of historical fiction authors.

I really wanted to love this book and was looking forward to it. Unfortunately, the pacing was quite slow and by page 150, not much had really happened. I thought some of the Chinese characters were interesting, but I would have preferred a story set earlier than in the early 19th century. Sadly, this one wasn't a win for me.

Read if you: Enjoy sweeping epics or you're a Rutherfurd fan.

It's been years since I've read a Rutherfurd book. I remembered that they were quite detailed and covered a lengthy amount of time. While the characters as a whole did not entirely stand out, I found the foot binding section quite eye-opening and horrifying. That was an unforgettable moment in the novel.

Librarians/booksellers: Purchase if previous Rutherfurd books have been popular.

Many thanks to Doubleday and NetGalley for a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.

I love all of Edward Rutherfurd's books and this one is no exception! Loved it, though he did leave Mei Ling's storyline dangling. Maybe he's writing a sequel!

Up until now, the only Edward Rutherfurd work that I had read so far had been “New York” several years ago. So I was quite excited to be able to read his very latest book for my second visit to his popular historical fiction novels.

Now whereas several of Rutherfurd’s historical fiction epics span over hundreds of years and several generations within a particular location, “China” covers a comparatively smaller period of time - just a little over sixty years. This results in a cast that remains fairly stable through the story. However, this narrower historical scope doesn’t make for a less interesting collection of intersecting plots, because the relatively shorter setting is a mightily turbulent stretch of China’s long history that starts with the First Opium War and ends shortly after the Boxer Rebellion.

Once I was finally fully engrossed, it only took me a few days to sweep through the book’s several hundred pages. However, although it was overall an enjoyable read, I also won’t hesitate to call it an uneven read as well. The cast of “China” is a mix of Han, Hakka, and Manchu men and women from China itself and an array of Europeans and Americans, with a primary focus on the merchant John Trader and the various men and women in his orbit. The latter’s various tales and plots take up a much larger share of the book than I expected, though to be fair this period of China’s history is marked in particular by the many ways in which the ailing last imperial dynasty was battered and squeezed by various outside nations. So I shouldn’t have been all that surprised by Rutherfurd’s choice to give his western characters so much attention. Unfortunately, I frankly found these characters to be not nearly as engaging as their Chinese counterparts, nor their various plotlines nearly as interesting. When the book’s focus turned to Trader or his compatriots, it felt less like I was reading and more like I was waiting until the narrative returned me to the plot of Guanji the Manchu bannerman, or “Lacquer Nail,” the eunuch. However, when the storyline finally did as so, it was never that long until I became immersed back into the setting as I absorbed the lives of these men and women.

So overall, Rutherfurd has written a solid new addition for his great historical fiction epics. I am intrigued to see where he decides to go next, and definitely hope that he chooses to do another foray out of Europe and the US.

I received a temporary digital advanced copy of China by Edward Rutherfurd from NetGalley, Hodder & Stoughton, and the author in exchange for an honest review.

Through the perspectives of numerous Chinese and English characters, Edward Rutherfurd's novel spans approximately one hundred years of China's history beginning in the early 1800s. One should not shy away from this book if they are not familiar with China's history; Rutherfurd ensures the reader understands the complexity each situation through having an elder character break down the events to a student, or junior member of government, which works extremely well.

Most of Rutherfurd character's and their story lines were interesting. I found some parts especially slow; however, it does pick up more in the later half of the book. I would have liked to hear more from the Chinese female perspective, especially Empress Dowager Cixi, as her journey was fascinating. Overall, well-written and thorough.

Writing: 5/5 Plot: 5/5 Characters: 5/5

A sweeping novel of China from 1839 - 1900, from the Opium Wars through China’s Century of Humiliation to the suppression of the Boxer rebellion. It’s the story of the conflicts surrounding the forced opening of China to Western trade, customs, and religion. The story is told through a variety of characters who span cultures, classes, backgrounds, and professions (including plenty of women characters with different roles, abilities and agendas). Multiple generations of characters such as a young English merchant trying to make his fortune (through opium), an upright Mandarin charged with enforcing the emperor’s ban of opium, a palace eunuch, a peasant girl, a mercenary pirate, a missionary, a Manchu bannerman, the emperor and various concubines and princes, and some craftsmen. The characters have depth, too. They reflect on what is happening, how they feel about their own role, and how to achieve their goals while maintaining their values (or how to shift their values to attain their goals).

I love that history itself is the protagonist in this novel, rather than the background setting for individual stories. Everything is told through the personal stories of the characters — either through participation in the action or through conversations between neighbors, colleagues, and family members. Even past history is exemplified in ritual and description of the origin of individual morality. This approach brings to the fore what it was like to live through these times with only direct observations and rumors as sources of information. And how very different that information was depending on your location, background, profession, culture and connections. Additionally, there were so many fascinating descriptions of various ways of life — all told in a style that was interesting because someone was learning it (e.g. a craft) or going through it — so always real and never dry. This was a long book, and I literally had trouble putting it down. (As a warning, one of these “fascinating” descriptions was about foot binding, and I skimmed through trying not to read that at all. Of all the atrocities visited upon humans, this is the one I find most horrific and barbaric (yes, even more than female circumcision which comes in a close second).

This is my first Rutherfurd and I’m now going back to read more. Meticulously researched, personal and accurate — a kind of modern day Michener for those old enough to remember classics like Tales of the South Pacific, Hawaii, The Source, or Caravans. After reading this, I have a far more in-depth understanding about the relationship between China and the West and of life in the 19th century.

When I saw that this book, CHINA, by Edward Rutherfurd, was available on Netgalley, I was so excited. He is one of my top 5 authors! And this book did not disappoint! He has written about the most wonderfully developed characters, Trader, Laquer Nail, Empress Dowager Cixi! in a novel that includes foot binding!, The Opium Wars, The Taiping Rebellion, The Boxer Rebellion, the Forbidden City and so much more of Chinese history, all of it with the beautiful landscape of the country of China in the background. There is so much in this novel. I loved reading about Mei-Ling, Shi-Rong and Nio and Guanji...that's all I'll say about them since there are no spoilers here. This is truly a remarkable book by Mr. Rutherfurd! and anyone who loves history will adore this book. He has done extensive research into the history of China and its dynasty's. It's all there!

Thank you to Netgalley and Doubleday Publishers for the galley of this amazing book!

This novel is a well researched venture into the period of about 1830 until the Boxer Revolution of 1900 in China. The author chooses several different families and individuals to frame his story on. These are characters that experience what was the Chinese culture during the time of their lives. Overall Mr. Rutherfurd utilizes the character of Cixi the dowager empress as the individual influencing events in the country both during her own lifetime and attempting to continue to do so after her death.
The story opens with what were the Opium wars of the early 1800s in which England carried on a lucrative trade of selling opium to China and buying tea from them. The Chinese realizing that they were getting generations of dope addicts as the price being paid to allow England to actually pay for tea attempted to keep the British from bringing the narcotic into their home ports. With fortunes riding on continuing the opium sales battles were fought between the modern weapons of the English and easily defeated Chinese troops.
Mr. Rutherfurd aptly shows a country with a rich history going back almost 5000 years with a population of a rich and also a destitute poor class. The path to wealth is mainly through entrance into some level of the ruling class and only minor possibilities through opening a successful business. One of the leading individuals is a man that faced with feeding his family decides to embark upon a path that would be impossible to conceive of by most men. He elects to become a eunuch in order to obtain work at the emperor's palace where that condition is mandatory to hold a position. He consults his wife and his father getting their approval and goes ahead with the change. By a lucky occurrence he obtains the job of doing the nails of Cixi than the emperor's concubine pleases her and continues on. He is dubbed "Lacquer Nail" the name that sticks with him permanently and is in a position to follow Cixi as she marries the emperor and in time assumes the role of dowager empress.
In 1900 a rebellion breaks out looking to stop the many groups of foreigners from continuing to bleed the country. The initiators of the insurrection are known as Boxers due to their interest in the martial arts. The foreigners centered in the city of Peking group together for mutual defense in the British legation using small groups of soldiers from the countries residing in China to defend them. Word is sent to a combined army of troops sent to restore the safety of the people working in China as part of their legations to come to their rescue. The section of the novel dealing with the rebellion and the subsequent arrival of the rescue force is a very well done portrait of people facing a situation that they are not attuned to contending with.
The book is a long one, but the ability of Mr. Rutherfurd to create a story and the people involved in it makes for one excellent read and a commanding portrait of a civilization not like that of most of the western world.

I absolutely loved this book! Covering the period from the Opium Wars through the Boxer Rebellion, the author made me feel like I was there. A wide variety of richly developed characters allow the reader to experience the events from multiple perspectives. The author follows history closely, using a mix of actual and fictional people. Some of the characters you will love, some you will despise, but they all add to the story.
As with all of the author's books, this is a LONG book. Well over 800 pages! I had a bit of difficulty getting into it at first. I had recently read "The Opium Lord's Daughter" by Robert Wang, so much of the beginning seemed to be repetitive, but then Wow! Did the story ever take off! I lost a lot of sleep, reading into the wee hours because I just could not put this book down!
A great, epic read! Highly highly recommend!