To come across a Westerner patient enough and tolerant enough to try and understand the immense, exasperating and ultimately lovable entity that is China is always a pleasure. To encounter one that is as literate and sensitive as Peter Hessler is a joy
Simon Winchester
'One of the most profoundly original books about China'
The Economist
... Read more'A swirl of interconnecting stories and histories make up Peter Hessler's extraordinary, genre-defying second book'
Daily Telegraph
'Oracle Bones, the much anticipated follow-up to his acclaimed debut, River Town, lays bare a rapidly evolving China through his often bizarre encounters with the engines of its social changes.'
South China Morning Post
'Extensive travel around China with occasional flits back home to the U.S., combine with some fascinating speculation on the origins of Chinese civilisation and how the remote past impinges on the present'
China Review
'Dip into it ... You will be hooked'
International Herald Tribune
'A brilliant tapestry of ancient and modern China'
Spectator
'He ranges widely and, in doing so, illustrates how Chinese history accumulates'
Mick Herron, Geographical Magazine
'Valuable for its necklace of vignettes - poignant, comic, and weird '
Jonathan Mirsky, Literary Review
'[An] extraordinary survey of contemporary China...really quite unforgettable'
The Observer
'If you read one book on Chinese modern culture, read this one'
Dimsum.co.uk
'Ingenious ... Stretches back in time as well as criss-crossing present-day China'
John Dugdale, Guardian
'Anyone who wants to begin to understand the complexities that are China, and their bitter-sweet and pregnant relationships with the West, should read this idiosyncratic, brilliant book'
Ross Leckie, The Times
'An impressive and moving account of the lives of ordinary people'
Clover Stroud, Sunday Telegraph / Travel
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