River Town

In 1996, Peter Hessler left the cloisters of Oxford and Princeton, where he had studied, and travelled to Fuling, in central China, expecting to spend a couple of tranquil years teaching English. What he experienced - the natural beauty, the cultural tensions, the complex (but ultimately rewarding) process of understanding the 'inscrutable' Chinese - surpassed anything he could have imagined. He saw first-hand how major events - the death of Deng Xiaoping, the return of Hong Kong to China, the controversial construction of the Three Gorges Dam - affected the people he was living among. Literate, sensitive and with deep affection for its subject, this is an instant classic of travel writing, in an age of superfluous travel books. Hessler goes to great pains to stress that this is not a book about the Chinese - it is, he says, a book about 'a certain small part of China at a certain brief period in time'. Still, one is bound to draw conclusions (largely positive conclusions) about the nation as a whole. More than a few stereotypes concerning the Chinese are (thankfully) laid to rest in this book, while others are humorously indulged ('for the Long March Singing Contest, all of the departments practised their songs for weeks and then performed in the auditorium. Many of the songs were the same, because the musical potential of the Long March is limited.'). Hessler's own experiences of life in Fuling are interspersed with broader social and historical sketches, reflecting the two roles a foreign resident plays in China, 'sometimes an observer, at other moments very much involved in local life... this combination of distance and intimacy was part of what shaped my two years in Sichuan'. And what shapes this book, one might add. Hessler is an outsider, but he is made to feel welcome. Six years after he first came to China, he was still living there, albeit in Beijing rather than Fuling. (Kirkus UK)