Peking

An epic novel of a wide-eyed missionary and a rebellious woman thrust into China's Communist revolution.

In 1931, young English-born missionary Jakob Kellner brings all the crusading passion of his untried Christian faith to a China racked by famine and bloody civil war. He burns to save the world's largest nation from Communism.

But when he is swept along on the cold, unforgiving Long March, Jakob becomes entangled with Mei-ling, a beautiful and fervent revolutionary. Soon, powerful new emotions challenge and reshape his faith - and entrap him forever in the vast country's tortured destiny.

Once held hostage by Red Guards in Peking for more than two years, author Anthony Grey traces the path of China's Communist party from its covert inception through purge and revolution. He crafts a portrait of China as a land of great beauty and harshness - of triumph and tragedy - in a sweeping narrative, rich in historical and cultural revelations.
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Before achieving international bestseller status with SAIGON and PEKING, Anthony Grey was a foreign correspondent with Reuters, having begun his career in journalism in the UK with the Eastern Daily Press in Norfolk where he was born and educated. He covered the Cold War from datelines all across Eastern Europe before being assigned to China. He was the only British journalist resident in the Chinese capital at the height of the Cultural Revolution - and became the focus of worldwide headlines when he was seized as a hostage by Mao Tse-tungs's Red Guards and held in solitary for two years. After publishing his first international bestselling book HOSTAGE IN PEKING, a non-fiction account of his ordeal, he established himself as a radio and television presenter, bestselling novelist, independent publisher and frequent public speaker.