Step back to a time where New Zealand is vast, exotic and undiscovered. The romance of becoming a ruler, possibly even a king in this unclaimed land seems easily achievable. At least this is what Baron Charles de Thierry must have felt when he named himself Sovereign Chief of New Zealand. The story of this french adventurer is also the story of a young New Zealand and his adventures are retold as though the author herself witnessed it. Robin Hyde's clever merging of historic events and fic...

Follow this distinguished author down the rabbit hole as she discovers the barbaric realities of the Japanese occupation of China in the late 1930s. A war that would eventually merge with World War Two is painted with the lyrical prose that only Robin Hyde could deliver. Hyde is a lone female journalist desperately evading the Japanese censors to send her accounts to Woman To-Day. She was the very first female journalist to visit these parts of China during this time. She encounters death,...

Follow this distinguished author down the rabbit hole as she discovers the barbaric realities of the Japanese occupation of China in the late 1930s.  A war that would eventually merge with World War Two is painted with the lyrical prose that only Robin Hyde could deliver. Hyde is a lone female journalist desperately evading the Japanese censors to send her accounts to Woman To-Day. She was the very first female journalist to visit these parts of China during this time. She encounters ...

A compelling historical novel about the tragic alliance between Chinese and English forces in Burma during World War IIBurma is under attack from the Japanese army, and a unit of Chinese soldiers is sent to aid endangered British forces trapped behind enemy lines. China’s assistance hinges on a promise: In return, the Allies will supply China with airplanes and military equipment, much needed to protect their own civilian population. But the troops—including a youn...

In 1903 Mary Mackenzie sails for China to marry the British military attaché, a man who turns out to be every bit as chilly as the Peking winter. During one of his many absences, Mary has a secret affair with a Japanese soldier, Count Kurihama, but her pregnancy by him is impossible to keep secret. Rejected by husband, mother and country, and forced to leave her daughter behind, Mary flees to Japan. 'The Ginger Tree' tells the fascinating story of her survival, isolated and alone, in this ...

The New York Times –bestselling memoir from the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.Often regarded as one of Pulitzer Prize–winning author Pearl S. Buck's most significant works, My Several Worlds is the memoir of a major novelist and one of the key American chroniclers of China. Born to missionary parents in 1892, Buck spent much of the first portion of her life in China, experiencing the ...

A Chinese dissident is torn between love and country in this novel from the New York Times –bestselling author of The Good Earth .When Wu I-wan starts taking an interest in revolution, trouble follows: Winding up in prison, he becomes friends with fellow dissident En-lan. Later, his name is put on a death list and he's shipped off to Japan. Thankfully, his father, a wealthy Shan...

'Thomas Keneally is one of the historical novel's most expert practitioners, and his new book sees him back on the form that produced Schindler's Ark. Giles Foden, GuardianArtem Samsurov, a charismatic protege of Lenin and an ardent socialist, reaches sanctuary in Australia after escaping his Siberian labour camp and making a long, perilous journey via Japan. But Brisbane in 1911 turns out not to be quite the workers' paradise he was expecting, or the bick...

Paul Theroux left Victoria Station on a rainy Saturday in April thinking that taking eight trains across Europe, Eastern Europe, the USSR and Mongolia would be the easy way to get to the Chinese border – the relaxing way, even. He would read a little, take notes, eat regular meals and gaze contentedly out of windows. The reality, of course, was very different.In fact, Theroux experienced a decidedly odd and unexpected trip to China that set the challenging tone for his epic year-lo...

Despite communist incursions and tribal insurrection, Norman Lewis describes a land of breathtaking natural beauty peopled by the gentle Burmese. This is a country where Buddhist belief spares even the rats, where the Director of Prisons quotes Chaucer and where three-day theatrical shows are staged to celebrate a monk taking orders. Hitching lifts with the army and travelling merchants, Lewis is treated to hospitality wherever he stops in this war-torn land, and reveals a country where 't...

For gauche young apprentice Milos Hrma, life at the small but strategic railway station in Bohemia in 1945 is full of complex preoccupations. There is the exacting business of dispatching German troop trains to and from the toppling Eastern front; the problem of ridding himself of his burdensome innocence; and the awesome scandal of Dispatcher Hubicka's gross misuse of the station's official stamps upon the telegraphist's anatomy. Beside these, Milos's part in the plan for the ammunition t...

A candid, rollicking literary travelogue from a pioneering New Yorker writer, an intrepid heroine who documented China in the years before World War II.Deemed scandalous at the time of its publication in 1944, Emily Hahn's now classic memoir of her years in China remains remarkable for her insights into a tumultuous period and her frankness about her personal exploits. A proud feminist and fearless traveler, she set out for China in 1935 and stayed through ...