The acclaimed author of "River Town" offers a rare portrait of 21st-century China. Hessler tells the story of this modern-day country and its growing links to the Western world as seen through the lives of a handful of ordinary people.

The acclaimed author of "River Town" offers a rare portrait of 21st-century China. Hessler tells the story of this modern-day country and its growing links to the Western world as seen through the lives of a handful of ordinary people.

A century ago, outsiders saw China as a place where nothing ever changes. Today the country has become one of the most dynamic regions on earth. In Oracle Bones, Peter Hessler explores the human side of China's transformation, viewing modern-day China and its growing links to the Western world through the lives of a handful of ordinary people. In a narrative that gracefully moves between the ancient and the present, the East and the West, Hessler captures the soul of a country that is undergoing a momentous change before our eyes.