Ha Jin grew up in mainland China and served in the People's Liberation Army in his teens for five years. After leaving the army, he worked for three years at a railroad company in a remote northeastern city, Jiamusi, and then went to college in Harbin, majoring in English. He has published in English nine novels, four story collections, four volumes of poetry, a book of essays, and a biography of Li Bai. His novel Waiting won the National Book Award for Fiction, the PEN/Faulkner Award, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Ha Jin is William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor in English and Creative Writing at Boston University, and he has been elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His writing has been translated into more than thirty languages.
Praise for Waiting: Winner of the National Book Award, PEN / Faulkner Award, and Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize “Ha Jin’s novel could hardly be less theatrical, yet we’re immediately engaged by its narrative structure, by its wry humor and by the subtle, startling shifts it produces in our understanding of characters and their situation.” —New York Times Book Review “Subtle and complex—his best work to date. A moving meditation on the effects of time upon love.” —Washington Post “A simple love story that transcends cultural barriers...Convincing and rich in detail...Filled with an earthy poetic grace.” —Chicago Tribune