Edward Rutherfurd

An engrossing story of the epic, century-spanning clash of East and West, from the internationally bestselling author of Paris and New York.

Edward Rutherfurd has enthralled millions of people with his grand, sweeping sagas that tell the multigenerational history of an iconic place. Now, in China: The Novel, Rutherfurd takes readers into the rich and fascinating milieu of the Middle Kingdom, dramatizing the epoch when the colonial greed of Western powers shattered the stability of the two-thousand-year-old empire, and the Chinese learned to fight back in ways that echo down to this day.


Weaving together the varied stories of opium-trading English merchants, rebellious Chinese nationalists, earnest missionaries, savvy Chinese pirates, and sage philosophers, Rutherfurd chronicles the turbulent rise and fall of empires as the colonial West meets the opulent and complex East in a dramatic struggle between cultures and people.


Extraordinarily researched and majestically told, China: The Novel paints a thrilling portrait of one of the most singular and remarkable countries in the world.