Middle Heart: A Novel

TRULY MOVING  . . . BETTE BAO LORD IS AT HER STRONGEST.--The Boston Globe. In 1932 as China shamefully kowtows under Japanese occupation three unlikely companions are fatefully bound by their steadfast patriotism: Steel Hope heir to a once-great aristocracy; Mountain Pine his crippled scholarly servant; and Firecrackers a poor gravekeepers daughter. In a youthful pact they call themselves Brothers of the Middle Heart vowing to defend their country to the end.. Yet as war and later the Communist Revolution ignite cruel circumstances separate them. One becomes a political leader one a writer one an actress. But despite incessant historical upheaval their lives continue to intertwine in poignant often tragic ways. Enmeshed in a love triangle they will live to see their loyalty to one another tested again and again.. Through these three richly drawn characters Bette Bao Lord re-creates the stirring drama of twentieth-century China. In vivid haunting prose she evokes the outrages that marred fifty years of the Chinese peoples existence--and illuminates the remarkable resilience that defines them to this day.