China’s Republican government is rocked by unrest and occupation. In this turbulent environment, The Elm Tree explores the conflicting social and political pressures faced by a prominent Beijing household. This intricately-crafted novel is both an epic family saga and a fascinating account of a pivotal time in China’s recent history.

Will the newest branch...

My Travels in Ding Yi is an epic novel told from the perspective of a spirit who inhabits an array of beings in different places and times. From Adam in the Garden of Eden, to a fish, to the novel’s protagonist, Ding Yi, an average Chinese boy in the second half of the 20th century. It’s in Ding Yi that Shi explores coming of age during the Cultural...

Broken Wings tells the harrowing story of Butterfly, who is kidnapped and taken to a mountain village in which all the young women have left for the city. There, she is imprisoned and, later, raped in the cave home of the wifeless farmer who has bought her. These traumatic events and Butterfly's fading hopes of escape are described in her own voice...

Empires of Dust follows the changes in rural life in China, starting from the era of Mao Zedong and then through the first thirty years of Deng Xiaoping’s policy of reform and opening up. The protagonist is a kind-hearted, hardworking and entrepreneurial peasant named Guo Cunxian who lives in an ordinary small village. He starts a business making coffins...

This powerful memoir follows the extraordinary life of Li Lanni, a writer and former cancer patient struggling with depression in 21st century China. At once deeply personal and profoundly universal, this story of cancer and mental illness captures the life and times of a generation struggling for health and happiness in a rapidly changing China.

What is it...

China’s Republican government is rocked by unrest and occupation. In this turbulent environment, The Elm Tree explores the conflicting social and political pressures faced by a prominent Beijing household. This intricately-crafted novel is both an epic family saga and a fascinating account of a pivotal time in China’s recent history.

Will the newest branch...