Burying the Bones: Pearl Buck's Life in China - Hardcover

Hilary Spurling

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1861978286 ISBN 13: 9781861978288

Publisher: Profile Books, 2010

Synopsis

This is a thrilling portrait of the extraordinary childhood of Pearl Buck, the now-forgotten bestselling Nobel Prize winning novelist. Pearl Buck was raised in China by her American parents, Presbyterian missionaries from Virginia. Blonde and blue-eyed she looked startlingly foreign, but felt as at home as her Chinese companions. She ran free on the grave-littered grasslands behind her house, often stumbling across the tiny bones of baby girls who had been suffocated at birth. Buck's father was a terrifying figure, with a maniacal zeal for religious conversion - a passion rarely shared by the local communities he targeted. He drained the family's budget for his Chinese translation of the New Testament, while his aggrieved, long-suffering wife did her utmost to create a homely environment for her children, several of whom died tragically young. Pearl Buck would eventually rise to eminence in America as a bestselling author, but in this startlingly original biography, Spurling recounts with elegance and great insight her unspeakable upbringing in a China that was virtually unknown to the West.

About this title

About the Author:

Hilary Spurling is the author of the universally acclaimed biography of Henri Matisse which was the Whitbread Book of the Year in 2005. Her biography of Ivy Compton-Burnett won the Heinemann and Duff Cooper prizes. She has also written biographies of Paul Scott and La Grande Therese (Profile). She has been an arts critic for the Spectator, Observer and Telegraph, and lives in London.

Review:

Boldly conceived and magnificently written ... a triumphant landmark in the development of creative biography. -- Elaine Showalter * Literary Review * Thrilling ... Spurling, who has never written a dull sentence, also has magic power as a writer -- Frances Wilson * Sunday Times * A terrific story, told with rare intelligence and refinement -- George Walden * Mail on Sunday * A subtle and masterly book -- Victoria Glendinning * Spectator * A biographical masterpiece -- Jackie Wullschlager * Financial Times * Elegant and sympathetic ... an illuminating and compelling biography. -- Isabel Hilton * Guardian * Superb ... a terrific story, told with rare intelligence and refinement -- George Walden * Mail on Sunday * Written with the grace and imaginative sympathy of a first-class novel ... [it] has an enduring bright intelligence and is one of the books of the year -- Richard Davenport-Hines * Sunday Telegraph * Spurling's style and the addictive character of her subject make it an intriguing read -- Andrew Holgate * Sunday Times * Riveting and timely * Times * Burying the Bones does superb justice to this forgotten American novelist's pioneering bid to explain China to the West. -- Sally Magnusson * Scotland on Sunday *

About this edition

• Publisher: Profile Books
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1861978286
• ISBN 13: 9781861978288
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352