Category Archives: Fiction books about China

by Laurie Dennis

A sweeping coming-of-age epic, The Lacquered Talisman launches the story of one of the most influential figures in Chinese history. He is the son of a beancurd seller and he will found the Ming Dynasty, which ruled China from 1368 to 1644.  Known as “Fortune” as a boy, Zhu Yuanzhang is part of a large and doting family who shepherd him through hardship until drought and plague ravage the countryside. Left with nothing but a lacquered necklace from his grandfather, Fortune is deposited in the village temple and is soon wandering the countryside as a begging monk. He encounters pockets of resistance to the ruling Mongol dynasty, studies the stars, and tangles with Taoists as he seeks to understand his destiny. Signs and dreams convince him that he has a special fate. Is he to be the abbot of a monastery? A general? What matters most is that he prove himself to be a filial son.

“Laurie Dennis knows more than anyone else about the founder of the Ming dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang. This fictionalized adventure tale fills out the peasant emperor’s own account of his family’s fortunes and misfortunes, and tells us about daily work, games, customs, and religious practices in 14th Century China. Anyone interested in Asian culture or history will enjoy and learn from Dennis’s lively and well-informed story-telling.” – Sarah Schneewind, Professor of History at UC, San Diego, and author of A Tale of Two Melons: Emperor and Subject in Ming China.

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by Kyle Fiske

Northern China in 1900. The nation is in turmoil, the failing Manchu dynasty struggles to survive in the face of social disintegration and foreign encroachments, and from the countryside comes a response: the brutal, quasi-religious movement known as the Boxers, who seek to rid the country of foreign influence. An American missionary couple In a remote town are attacked, and their son Wayland is left barely clinging to life. Rescued by kindly Chinese passers-by, Wayland begins his recovery in the still-simmering city of Tianjin, and he finds his new Chinese family has dark secrets of their own. He is thrust into the middle of a deadly dispute between two martial arts masters, and his own fate will hinge on the outcome. Wayland must navigate between two worlds, and to do so, arms himself with the powerful secrets of Chinese martial arts.  Dragons and Boxers combines the best of Martial Arts writing with exquisite historical story-telling.

“Genuine sword fighting experience is something few writers have, but fortunately for the reader, Fiske does. Throughout the story, Fiske brings his years of training in Chinese martial arts and full contact swordplay to the page, lending the training and fight scenes a realism only a student of the arts can conjure up.” – Scott M. Rodell, Author of “Chinese Swordsmanship – The Yang Family Taiji Jian Tradition,” “Fundamentals of the Wudang Sword Method,” “Ming Chinese Military Swordsmanship,” and other titles.

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by Brian McElney and Andrew Hoste Primrose

In the year BC 35, it is recorded that 145 Roman Soldiers settled in northwestern China. How did they get there? This novel creates a narrative starting thirty years before, following the fortunes and misfortunes of one of those soldiers, Marcus, as he fights with Julius Caesar in Gaul and with Marcus Licinius Crassus against the Parthians. Some of the Toman soldiers are taken prisoner by the Parthians but escape and head eastwards. This story from more than 2,000 years ago spans continents and the ages and provides a base for one of the most fascinating mysteries of northwest China.

“A sweeping story of Ancient Rome and a group of legionnaires who get pushed by forces beyond their control eastwards into what is today’s China.”
– Writer and publisher Gareth Powell

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by Clare Kane

Peking, 1900. Amidst the violence and terror of the anti-foreign Boxer Rebellion, a young China-born Englishwoman finds herself under siege alongside the city’s overseas population. Independent-minded and unaccustomed to European ways, Nina Ward embarks on an affair with married diplomat Oscar Fairchild, risking her future as death and despair draw ever closer. Journalist Alistair Scott records the controversy, trying to separate the reckless pair as the siege grows bloodier and the scandal grows louder. Based on real historical events, Dragons In Shallow Waters is a story of love, betrayal and secrets that reach across time and continents.

“Lush and sophisticated. This is a seamless melding of two illicit love affairs with the atrocious events in Peking in the summer of 1900. In elegant prose, Clare Kane vividly evokes the Boxer Rebellion catastrophe and deftly paints her characters in all their emotional complexity. The riveting story and its sympathetic characters will stay with you long after the final pages.” -Alice Poon, author of The Green Phoenix

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by Harry Miller

As China’s once-glorious Ming dynasty tears itself apart, a young man and woman struggle to stay together. Set before the backdrop of one of the great upheavals in Chinese history, Southern Rain is the story of a carpenter’s son who falls for a brilliant Buddhist nun just as she is set to become a powerful man’s concubine. Their adventures lead them north to Beijing and south to the Yangtze valley, as art, theater and poetry give way to foreign invasion, banditry and chaos. In a world of turmoil, their search for freedom and safety comes to mirror China’s own. Southern Rain is both an intimate portrait of a man and a woman and a sweeping historical epic, presenting China’s tumultuous seventeenth century on a human scale.

“With the historian’s eye for significant detail, Harry Miller tells a compelling love story behind which, nearly overpowering his protagonists, is the cataclysm that was the seventeenth-century collapse of China’s last dynasty and the establishment of the Manchu Qing empire. Miller creates a rich tapestry of this long-past era, a period of great tragedy, and of hope. Readers are not likely soon to forget the heroine of this novel, nor her less capable husband; their strengths, and their vulnerability.” -Robert E. Hegel, Professor of Comparative Literature, Professor of Chinese, Washington University, St. Louis

“Harry Miller is a writer. This book proves it. Decide for yourself.” -Sonny Brewer, author, The Poet of Tolstoy Park

“Harry Miller masterfully weaves an offbeat story of love amidst chaos in 17th century China. Steeped in cultural and literary minutiae, the novel bristles with heart and wit. Miller’s writing is luminous and animated and his expansive research shines through. An intoxicating work of historical fiction.” -Alice Poon, author of The Green Phoenix

Buy it on Amazon or email us to order a copy if you are China-based.