"There were too many men and women who were jealous of the famous Madame Liang, who managed, no one knew how, to keep open a restaurant whose daily menu carried the finest gourmet foods."  Chapter 1, Page 11

{ABOUT THE STORY}

(from the dust jacket) Here is China of yesterday, today and tomorrow, in a work, through the magic of fiction, tells us more of that great country and it's people than the "facts" of all the journalists and analysts seem able to do. And here is Pearl Buck in her first novel of China in more than a decade.

In Madame Liang, Pearl Buck has created one of the most memorable and convincing characters. She is the proprietor of the most fashionable restaurant in Shanghai. Despite Communist austerity, despite intrigue, despite Red Guards, she somehow manages to provide gourmet foods and elegant service; and to her come the highest officials, the most successful merchants, the top military officers. All are her friends or at least her customers.  

Friends, too, had been the wealthy American family whose former luxurious home is now hers. The Brandons had had to sell it, and with tearful farewells, return to America when the Communists came. But Madame Liang had never shed her loyalty to them and to America, and it was to America that she sent her three daughters to be educated.

Grace, Mercy, Joy - those are the daughters, now torn between China and America. Upon them, their lovers or husbands, their emotional and patriotic conflicts, focuses a story of turbulence and drama, tragedy and hope. The light that illuminates it steadfastly is Madame Liang's faith in the enduring qualities of China. Although a shocking climax overwhelms her, it leaves behind an undimmed hope that her country's full greatness will return and that she may have helped to hasten it.

{SPECIAL FEATURES}

- Pulitzer & Nobel Prize-winning author

- Original Dust Jacket designed by Ronald Clyne

- Book-of-the-Month-Club edition 

- Beautiful vintage nameplate from previous owner on inside cover

- 315 pages

{CONDITION}

The dust jacket bears some very light scuff and stains and some wrinkling to top edge - but the jacket is 100% fully intact with no rips or tears. Previous owner's nameplate on inside cover.

{SIZE}

Measures 6" inches (width) x 8.25" inches (length) x 1.3" inches (depth)

{WHY IT'S GREAT FOR COLLECTING}

It's a feast for the brain and the eyes! The author, Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973) won both the Pulitzer Prize (1932 for The Good Earth) as well as the Nobel Prize for Literature (1938).  The dust jacket was designed by Ronald Clyne (1925-2006), a prominent 20th-century graphic designer most known for designing hundreds of record album covers for prominent musicians.