Pearl S. Buck

The Pulitzer Prize–winning, New York Times–bestselling novel about a peasant farmer and his family in early twentieth-century China.
The Good Earth is Buck's classic story of Wang Lung, a Chinese peasant farmer, and his wife, O-lan, a former slave. With luck and hard work, the couple's fortunes improve over the years: They have sons, and save steadily until one day they can afford to buy property in

...

A man returns to his native China to find upheaval in both his homeland and his family in this novel by a New York Times–bestselling author.
On the eve of a popular rebellion, the Chinese government starts to crack down in cities across the country. Fleeing the turmoil, Wang Yuan, the son of a famous general and grandson of the patriarch of The Good Earth, leaves for America to study agriculture. When he returns to...

Pearl S. Buck's remarkable account of the life of Tzu Hsi, the magnetic and fierce-minded woman from humble origins who became China's last empress In Imperial Woman, Pearl S. Buck brings to life the amazing story of Tzu Hsi, who rose from concubine status to become the working head of the Qing Dynasty. Born from a humble background, Tzu Hsi falls in love with her cousin Jung Lu, a handsome guard-but while still a teenager she is selected, along with...

A provocative and fascinating exploration of male–female relationships by the Nobel Prize–winning author of The Good Earth. Pearl S. Buck grew up in China, accustomed to its traditions, but when she moved to the United States as an adult in the 1930s, she was struck by the cultural differences in gender roles and expectations. In nine short chapters, she applies this personal experience to an exploration of the power dynamics of the American household,...

Pearl S. Buck's groundbreaking memoir, hailed by James Michener as 'spiritually moving,' about raising a child with a rare developmental disorder. The Child Who Never Grew is Buck's candid memoir of her relationship with her oldest daughter, who was born with a rare type of mental retardation. A forerunner of its kind, the memoir was published in 1950 and helped demolish the cruel taboos surrounding learning disabilities. Buck describes life with...

Dickensian in its epic sweep, one of Buck's finest novels centers on an unnamed peasant woman in pre-revolutionary China. Without warning, her restless husband abandons her. Shamed by the experience, she is left to work the land, raise their three children on her own, and care for her aging mother-in-law. To save face with her neighbors, she pretends her husband is traveling, and sends letters to herself signed in his name. Surrounded by poverty,...

An enthralling tale, divided between China and America, of two friends inspired by radically opposed ideals This deeply felt novel tells the story of William Lane and Clem Miller, Americans who meet in China as youths at the end of the nineteenth century. Separated by the Boxer Rebellion, they're destined to travel wildly different courses in life. From a background of wealth and privilege, William becomes a power-hungry and controlling media magnate....

A wealthy painter finds his inspiration, and tumultuous love, in a girl he meets by chance At the turn of the century, an upper-class painter from Philadelphia goes searching for inspiration. He finds his muse on a farm-the farmer's beautiful and humble daughter. His portrait of her becomes one of his most inspired works, but his passion for the illiterate girl doesn't stop at the easel: He returns to marry her and settle down to country life-a journey...

A Nobel laureate's gripping historical novel about the Japanese invasion of Nanking. Farmer Liang Tan knows only a quiet, traditional life in his remote Chinese farming community. When news filters in that Japanese forces are invading the country, he and his fellow villagers believe that if they behave decently to the Japanese soldiers, the civilians might remain undisturbed. They're in for a shock, as the attackers lay waste to the country and install...

An affecting portrait of interracial love in post-war Japan Pearl S. Buck's The Hidden Flower centers on the relationship between a Japanese student and an American soldier stationed in post-war Japan. The Japanese student's father worked in the United States as a doctor, but had to flee to Kyoto to avoid imprisonment in an internment camp. The American soldier has inherited his family's estate in Virginia, where interracial marriage is forbidden....