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Description
A New York Times Notable Book
Winner of the Kiriyama Book Prize
In the heart of China's Sichuan province, amid the terraced hills of the Yangtze River valley, lies the remote town of Fuling. Like many other small cities in this ever-evolving country, Fuling is heading down a new path of change and growth, which came into remarkably sharp focus when Peter Hessler arrived as a Peace Corps volunteer, marking the first time in more than half a century that the city had an American resident. Hessler taught English and American literature at the local college, but it was his students who taught him about the complex processes of understanding that take place when one is immersed in a radically different society.
Poignant, thoughtful, funny, and enormously compelling, River Town is an unforgettable portrait of a city that is seeking to understand both what it was and what it someday will be.
Hessler takes students on an unforgettable journey to a small village in China where he spent two years teaching English. What he discovers while in this remote village is far more than he ever thought possible. This is a very intimate and human look at a town’s struggle to adapt to the modern world that surrounds it.
“Charming and insightful. . . . Poignanthilarious. . . . Lively, intelligent. . . . You will learn a great deal about real life in contemporary China in River Town, and about how that vast country appears in the eyes of a sensitive, aware, rugged young American who keeps both his eyes and his mind open.”—New York Times Freshman Common Read: College of CharlestonYou may also like
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