Half a World Away

When Ethan Williams leaves his teaching job in St. Louis for a new life in Beijing, he tells himself it's about adventure. Freedom. Reinvention. But what begins as an escape quickly turns into something far more complicated.

Thrown into the chaos of Chinese classrooms, the swirl of expat nightlife, and a city that never stops moving, Ethan finds himself caught between cultures and between people who challenge everything he thought he knew about himself. From the fluorescent glare of Happy Sunshine English School to the smoky neon of Beijing bars, every encounter pushes him closer to the question he came here to avoid: what happens when the person you're running from is you?

Funny, raw, erotic and heartbreakingly honest, Half a World Away is a story about dislocation and discovery. It's about how leaving home can be the only way to find it.