First published 2011
Pearl Buck grows up speaking Chinese before English in imperial China, the daughter of American missionaries who believes herself Chinese until age eight. The Boxer Rebellion shatters this identity when her family flees for their lives. She witnesses floods, famines, droughts, bandits, and wars that devastate the countryside and its people. Buck becomes the first Westerner since Marco Polo to truly understand and convey Chinese life to foreign audiences. Her novel The Good Earth captures the daily struggles of ordinary Chinese farmers and becomes a global sensation in 1932, captivating readers worldwide and earning her the Nobel Prize for Literature. Yet success cannot resolve the fundamental tension that defines her existence. Buck remains suspended between her deep Chinese roots and her American heritage, belonging fully to neither world while serving as a bridge between both cultures.
Genres: american-fiction, 20th-century, china, biographical-fiction, 21st-century, asian-american
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: cultural-identity, fish-out-of-water
Setting: China, Imperial China
Period: 20th Century
352 pages · Paperback · Profile Books(GB)