Oracle Bones
A Journey Through Time in China
By Peter Hessler
(Harper Perennial, Paperback, 9780060826598, 528pp.)
Publication Date: May 2007
Other Editions of This Title: Google eBook
Categories: Asia - China, Essays & Travelogues
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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.
Peter Hessler is a staff writer at The New Yorker, where he served as the Beijing correspondent from 2000 to 2007, and is also a contributing writer for National Geographic. He is the author of River Town, which won the Kiriyama Book Prize, and Oracle Bones, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. He won the 2008 National Magazine Award for excellence in reporting.
“An extraordinary, genre-defying book. . . . Beautifully constructed. . . . Hessler’s reportage is vivid.”
-Nigel Richardson, The Daily Telegraph
“A brilliant observer with a novelist’s ear for character and dialogue, Hessler is both fascinating and funny.”
-Entertainment Weekly
“Engaging. . . . Acutely observed, moving, frequently funny and a perspicacious X-ray of China’s zeitgeist.”
-South China Morning Post
“A remarkable travelogue documenting aspects of a country still little understood.”
-Kirkus (starred review)
“Wonderful. . . . Intimate. . . . The book reads like a really good novel.”
-Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Everyone in the Western world should read this book.”
-Publishers Weekly, (starred review)
“Hessler has written a fascinating and frequently moving account of life in modern China.”
-Booklist
“Insightful. . . . Hessler is a wry and witty writer who manages to bring humor even to tense situations.”
-Christian Science Monitor
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