Book: A Single Pebble by John Hersey

Paperback, 180 pages. First Vintage Books edition, 1989. This is in excellent pre-owned/vintage condition but especially for its age. No marks, no wear, no discoloration. I am a total slob at heart but boy does my husband know how to take care of his books! "A young American engineer sent to China to inspect the unruly Yangtze River travels up through the river's gorges searching for dam sites. Pulled on a junk hauled by forty-odd trackers, he is carried, too, into the settled, ancient way of life of the people of the Yangtze — until the interplay of his life with theirs comes to a dramatic climax...." If you're unfamiliar, John Hersey was an American writer and journalist born in China in 1914. The son of Protestant missionaries, he learned to speak Chinese before he spoke English. He is considered one of the earliest practitioners of New Journalism, in which storytelling techniques of fiction are adapted to non-fiction reportage. (When I was studying such things, we called this "Creative Non-Fiction.") Hersey is probably best known for having written Hiroshima, an account of the aftermath of the atomic bomb. As for me, I can say he seems to have been a remarkably sensitive and conscientious person for his era, particularly in regards to world cultures, and his prose is quite lovely. Fun fact: in 1937 he had a summer job as a private secretary and driver for Sinclair Lewis. He hated it! ^_^