Letter from Peking

From the Nobel Prize–winning author of The Good Earth: The New York Times–bestselling novel of a Chinese-American family separated by war.


Elizabeth and Gerald MacLeod are happily married in China, bringing up their young son, Rennie. But when war breaks out with Japan, Gerald, who is half-Chinese, decides to send his wife and son back to America while he stays behind. In Vermont, Elizabeth longingly awaits his letters, but the Communists have forbidden him from sending international mail. Over time, both the silences and complications grow more painful: Gerald has taken up a new love and teenager Rennie struggles with his mixed-race heritage in America. Rich with Buck’s characteristic emotional wisdom, Letter from Peking focuses on the ordeal of a family split apart by race and history.