The Peking Letter

by Seymour Topping

The time is October 1948. Communist armies are descending on Peking, threatening a destructive siege of the old imperial capital, now held by the forces of Chiang Kai-shek. Eric Jensen, a young American researcher of ancient Taoist philosophy, is still enjoying the city, exploring its palaces and temples, venturing by night into its boisterous wine shops and elegant brothels. But then he meets Lilian Yang, a leftist medical student who turns his world upside-down.

Driven by his love for Lilian and the desire to preserve treasured Peking, Jensen agrees to become a courier for a group of intellectual notables secretly negotiating with Mao Tse-tung for the peaceful surrender of Peking. Bearing a letter that could safeguard the city from devastation, Jensen travels to besieged Nanking, Shanghai, and across remote battlefields where armies are locked in brutal combat. Unexpectedly, he is thrust into another entanglement. Aware of his Chinese sympathies, the Central Intelligence Agency blackmails him into joining its own clandestine operation. Jensen finds himself a pawn in the ideological confrontation in the United States over China policy. Escaping back to Peking to search for Lilian, who has disappeared, Jensen is pursued by the CIA, Chiang Kai-shek’s secret police and the Communist military. Isolated in his unrelenting struggle to become reunited with Lilian, trapped on the high seas by the CIA, he is forced to come to terms with his love for Lilian, China, and his own country.

In this vivid, panoramic novel, which faithfully portrays the historic figures of the time, renowned journalist Seymour Topping provides profound insights into the roots of modern-day China. Topping takes us behind the scenes of the revolution he covered from 1946 to 1949 as a young journalist based in Peking and Nanking. The Peking Letter documents the political manipulations and battle strategies of the civil war and depicts the dreams, fears, love affairs and sacrifices of Americans and Chinese caught up in the events that led to the tumultuous birth of the People’s Republic of China.

320 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1999

About the author

Seymour Topping is currently San Paolo Professor Emeritus of International Journalism at Columbia University. He is one of the most respected journalists in the world, having worked as a foreign correspondent in many different parts of the world for I.N.S., A.P. and the New York Times. He subsequently held several editorial positions within the New York Times Company while concurrently engaging in further writing of newspaper and magazine articles as well as both fiction and non-fiction books.

Reviews

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

An American is caught up in intrigue during China's civil war.