“An exhilarating book… wonderful insights… Ms. Barrett has captured a truly authentic Beijing.”
— Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club
Buy The Middle Kingdom
The Middle Kingdom
For Grace, the ardent yet puzzled heroine of Andrea Barrett’s third novel, this trip has been planned as a three-week stay: she’s to play dutiful wife to Walter, her prominent scientist husband, at the 1986 Beijing International Conference on the Effects of Acid Rain. Walter is twelve years older than Grace, and as sour as the rain he studies; he and Grace are at a particularly troubled point in their marriage. Their tightly circumscribed visit, however, becomes a journey exceedingly less tidy and more complex as Grace falls forever out of love with her husband and very much in love with this country and its culture.
“An affecting novel about an American woman’s self-discovery…. Barrett here re-creates not China itself but, more reasonably, her heroine’s fascination with it, and she manages to infuse her characters, Grace especially, with a psychic energy and charm.”
“With The Middle Kingdom, Andrea Barrett further consolidates her position as one of our most thoughtful chroniclers of contemporary life…. The Middle Kingdom is another impressive milestone in what promises to be a long and fruitful literary journey by an accomplished American author.”
“The Middle Kingdom is engaging. Andrea Barrett writes with felicity, intelligence, and humor.”
“The Middle Kingdom proves again that Andrea Barrett is a writer of talent and promise.”