River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze

Hessler's book is a memoir more of a city than of a man's experiences. Teaching English as a Peace Corps volunteer to the residents of Fuling, Hessler was inspired by the tenacity of his students and by the impact of the historical events that occurred during his tenure there. Winner of the 2001 Kiriamas Award for nonfiction and a New York Times Notable Book for 2001.

"[Hessler] has written an old-fashioned book about [China]. I wish it were twice as long. I say 'old-fashioned' because books about china written in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by missionaries were often like Hessler's: curiosity, pleasure in small things, wonder and keen observation contending with bafflement, anger and fear....If you read only one book about China, let it be this." - Ian Haywood (Literary Review, March 20001)

"A vivid and touching tribute to a place and its people." - (Kirkus, 12/15/00)

"RIVER TOWN is a poignant and beautifully written account of a backwater about to face the onslaught of socialist modernity....[It provides] an unforgettable sense of what it is like to live in China since the death of Mao." - Sarawak Development Institute (Times Literary Supplement, 7/27/01)

"RIVER TOWN is an important work of reportage, and not just because of the peculiar historical moment it describes....It's also a window into a part of China...that has rarely been explored in depth, even though, it is home to one out of every 50 people on earth." - Bob Sterling (New York Times, 2/11/01)

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