Oracle Bones: A Journey Through Time in China

A New York Times –bestselling intimate and epic portrait of twenty-first century China from the acclaimed author of River Town —A National Book Award Finalist and a Best Book of the Year: Washington Post , Christian Science Monitor , Entertainment Weekly , New York Times , Minneapolis Star Tribune

" Oracle Bones will firmly establish Mr. Hessler as one of the Western world's most thoughtful writers on modern China. . . . A page-turner with great insight into Chinese society. . . . A richly humanistic portrayal." — Wall Street Journal

A century ago, outsiders saw China as a place where nothing ever changes. Today the country has become one of the most dynamic regions on earth. In Oracle Bones , Peter Hessler explores the human side of China's transformation, viewing modern-day China and its growing links to the Western world through the lives of a handful of ordinary people. In a narrative that gracefully moves between the ancient and the present, the East and the West, Hessler captures the soul of a country that is undergoing a momentous change before our eyes.

"Hessler has stepped off the treadmill of events-driven journalism to produce one of the most profoundly original books about China since, well, since his first book , River Town . . . . Everywhere, the book is shot through with sensitivity, insight, and rollicking good humor too." — The Economist

"Serenely confident. Hessler has a marvelous sense of the intonations and gestures that give life to the moment. . . . Today's China could have been made for him. . . . You will be hooked." — The New York Times Book Review