Spotlight on International Fiction: China

The second in the "Spotlight on International" blog series focuses on China. If you like to be whisked away to a far away place through fiction novels, China is a great setting for international fiction - whether it's historical fiction or contemporary. Here are some titles you may enjoy!


Three Sisters by Feyiu Bi
Growing up in a post-Cultural Revolution-era Chinese village, three sisters among seven strive to change the course of their destinies by embracing respective views about dignity, seduction, and ambition.

A Thread of Sky by Deanna Fei
Widowed after a devastating accident and fearful of facing her grief alone, Chinese-American Irene Shen reunites three generations of independent women from her estranged family--including her mother, sister, and daughters--during a tour of mainland China.

Pearl of China: a novel by Anchee Min
A tale based on the life of novelist Pearl S. Buck follows her as she grows up in late-nineteenth-century China; befriends Willow, a Chinese peasant girl; and with Willow shares life's joys and sorrows, despite the Communist revolution.

Peony in Love by Lisa See
Written by bestselling author of "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan". In seventeenth-century China, three women become emotionally involved with "The Peony Pavilion," a famed opera rumored to cause lovesickness and even death.

Woman from China: tales of survival from a Chinese labor camp by Xianhui Yang
Presents the fictionalized stories of twelve survivors from the Chinese work camps in Jiabiangou, exiled there by the Communist Party between 1957 and 1960 to undergo reeducation through hard labor for being rightists.

You can find many more titles in our catalog of fiction that takes place in China.