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Two Books I Loved

I recently finished reading two books by the same author that I highly recommend.  One is called City of Tranquil Light and the other is called The Distant Land of My Father by Bo Caldwell, a contemporary author.  The first one I received for my birthday last year and reread last week and the second one I finished this morning because I wanted to and I could!

They share similar settings:  China and California.  China represents an exotic world that is a hard place to live with a lot of poverty, famine, and political turmoil.  The people there have suffered a lot.  California represents the promised land with its endless sunshine, warm weather, and prosperity.


City of Tranquil Light is about a man and woman who become missionaries to China and end up getting married after they get there.  It is a love story in many ways--they fall in love with each other and with China.  But, in the end, they have to leave China because it is too hard on the woman's health and because they are in danger.  The story is based on the author's missionary grandparents and is very faith-based.  I really enjoyed the story but did not identify as strongly with the protagonists because they seemed so self-sacrificing.


The Distant Land of My Father is about the relationship a girl has with her parents.  She is an only child, born in China in 1931, not long before Japan invades China.  Her father loves Shanghai where they live (he was born in northern China to missionary parents), but they are clearly in danger so her mother takes her and they go to California.  The father won't leave and ends up being imprisoned by the Japanese in terrible conditions for a while.  He joins them in California after being released but he's not happy there so he goes back to China after the war.

I won't tell the rest, but the book is about redemption and forgiveness, being a parent and being a child.  It caused me to think about what I want my relationship to be with my children and my parents.  I identified strongly with the protagonist who really had a hard time forgiving her father for the choices he made--not because I need to forgive my own father, but simply because forgiveness is hard for everyone.  Her feelings seem very believable.  Faith also plays a role in this novel but is not as prominent.  The plot is very compelling and the book is hard to put down.  It's apparently based on the life of the author's uncle, whose parents were the missionaries featured in the first novel.

One of the best things about these two novels is that they are very clean and well-written, an unusual combination lately.  Unfortunately they seem to be hard to obtain in the local libraries, which is really too bad.  Also, they seem to be the only two books this author has written.  I would love to read more.

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