Hard Sleeper

by Jennifer Scheel Bushman, Jean Artley Szymanski

Jane McPherson, daughter of American missionaries, enjoyed an idyllic childhood in old Peking until her parents were brutally murdered. In 1936, with the onset of war against Japan and fighting between Kuomintang and communist forces, Jane and her brother Will were sent to live with family friends in Shanghai, where Jane had to contend with long-buried family secrets, shattered romance, and expulsion from her beloved country. Now elderly, Jane has returned to China to reunite with the daughter she hasn't seen in sixty years. During a cross-country train ride to Beijing, Jane unravels the mystery of her parents' death for her daughter and an ambitious young film producer who gains new perspective on her own life as she watches mother and daughter struggle to know one another. An unforgettable mystery adventure spanning more than six decades of Chinese culture and history, Hard Sleeper is a story of unconquerable spirit, set against the background of the Sino-Japanese War and the emerging realities of today's China.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003