Jan-Philipp Sendker is a German journalist who has been a correspondent for China for several years. He has written several great books in the meantime. His first one, the non-fiction book "Risse in der großen Mauer" [Cracks in the Great Wall] by Jan-Philipp Sendker is just fantastic.
In the meantime, he is also a renowned fiction writer. I have read most of his books, some of them a series) but not all of them have been translated into English. Yet, I hope.
Whether you want to read "The Art of Hearing Heartbeats" (German: Das Herzenhören) or "Whispering Shadows"or any of the other books that have been translated in the meantime, they are all great.
In this novel, we meet Paul and Christine again, the American-Chinese couple living in Hongkong with their little son. Another crime story that takes them through large parts of China where we can learn about the system people over there live in. Captivating.
We meet people who live in a town and people who live in a village, far away from any larger settlement but still not too far to be caught in the grip of the party.
Brilliant story, very emotional. I can honestly say that Jan-Philipp Sendker belongs to my favourite German authors at the moment.
From the back cover:
"During a trip to China, Paul and Christine experience the nightmare of every parent: their four year old son is kidnapped. They are reunited after a few hours but the kidnappers, very powerful people in today’s China with close contacts to the police, dearly want the child back. The only safe place for the family is the US embassy in Beijing, but they are two thousand miles away, with the police searching frantically for them, and all airports, train stations and major roads under surveillance. They’ll have no chance without help from strangers, but who will be willing to risk their lives for them?
Whom can they trust?
The Far Side of the Night is a powerful, transporting novel about the struggle to maintain humanity in an impossible situation."
These are the books in the Rising Dragon (China) trilogy:
"Whispering Shadows" (German: Das Flüstern der Schatten) (The Rising Dragon #1) - 2007
"Dragon Games" aka "The Language of Solitude" (German: Drachenspiele) (The Rising Dragon #2) - 2009
"The Far Side of the Night" (German: Am anderen Ende der Nacht) (The Rising Dragon #3) - 2016
I have not read this author, but I always like books set in China.
ReplyDeleteSo do I. And he is very good. I'd definitely recommend him.
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