Pearl of China by Anchee Min

Pearl of China by Anchee Min

In the small southern China town of Chin-kiang, in the last days of the nineteenth century, two young girls bump heads and become thick as thieves. Willow is the only child of a destitute family. Pearl is the headstrong daughter of Christian missionaries-and will grow up to become Pearl S. Buck, Nobel Prize-winning writer and activist. This unlikely pair becomes lifelong friends, confiding their beliefs and dreams, experiencing love and motherhood, and eventually facing civil war and exile. Pearl of China brings new color to the remarkable life of Pearl S. Buck, illuminated by the sweep of history and an intimate, unforgettable friendship.

In 1957, Anchee Min was born in Shanghai. She was sent to a labor collective at the age of seventeen, where she was discovered by a talent scout for Madame Mao's Shanghai Film Studio and hired as a movie actor. With the support of actress Joan Chen, she immigrated to the United States in 1984. Her memoir, Red Azalea, was named a New York Times Notable Book in 1994 and earned the Carl Sandburg Literary Prize in 1993. Becoming Madame Mao, Empress Orchid, Katherine, and Wild Ginger are among Min's other works.