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John Shors recreates an ancient and celebrated Chinese legend about a pair of young lovers separated by war and the Great Wall.
John Shors reimagined one of the world's greatest love stories—the romance that inspired the Taj Mahal—in his critically acclaimed, international bestseller Beneath a Marble Sky. Now, with Unbound, Shors recreates an ancient and celebrated Chinese legend about a pair of young lovers separated by war and the Great Wall.
The year is 1548, and the Chinese Empire faces an imminent Mongol invasion. All that prevents the violent end of a dynasty is the Great Wall. Yet even this famed fortification has weaknesses, and against his will, a talented Chinese craftsman is taken from his home and wife, so that he may labor alongside the wall's defenders. Fan has been missing for a year when his wife, Meng, decides to do the impossible—to leave everyone and everything she knows in a daunting effort to find him. At a time when many women fear even stepping outside their homes, Meng disguises herself as a man and begins a perilous journey of deliverance.
As two armies gather at the Great Wall, the fates of Fan and Meng collide with a Mongol horseman seeking redemption, a Chinese concubine fighting injustice, and a ruthless general determined to destroy them all.
"There are many reasons to select books to read. Selecting Unbound celebrates our intellect, our passion, our need for knowledge of the past, and our luxuriating in brilliant prose."- San Francisco Review of Books
"Unbound is a story of love and intrigue, of loyalty and friendship, set against a background of the majestic Great Wall of China, told by someone who has written extensively about the romance of exotic places... Unbound is both exotic romance and adventure story, as beautifully written as the author's acclaimed Beneath a Marble Sky." - The Denver Post
"Unbound is utterly captivating--an epic, historical page-turner with a beating heart. I loved it." - Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
"In Unbound, John Shors draws us inside the impassioned history of China's Great Wall, through richly intertwined characters determined to live freely, and for love. A haunting tale of the enduring bonds that anchor and save us when all the other chains--poverty, enslavement, cruelty, degradation--have been broken. A gem of storytelling." - Paula McLain, New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Wife
"An elegant and compelling epic told with Shors' trademark understanding of human nature and ability to create characters who touch our hearts. The setting -- China's Great Wall - is as much a personality in the tale as the husband and wife who live, and love, in its shadow. In Unbound, history comes alive and literally takes your breath away and breaks your heart at the same time." - M.J. Rose, New York Times bestselling author of The Library of Light and Shadow
"Shors is an immense talent...a master storyteller." - Amy Tan, New York Times bestselling author of The Joy Luck Club
"I'm deeply moved by Shors' work." - Wally Lamb, New York Times bestselling author of She's Come Undone
"Shors transcends politics and headlines and finds the timeless and deeply human stories that are the essence of enduring fiction ... a gifted writer." - Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize winning author of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain
This information about Unbound was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
After graduating from Colorado College, John Shors lived for several years in Kyoto, Japan, where he taught English. On a shoestring budget, he later trekked across Asia, visiting ten countries and climbing the Himalayas. After returning to the United States, he became a newspaper reporter in his hometown, Des Moines, Iowa, winning several statewide awards in journalism. John then moved to Boulder, Colorado, and helped launch GroundFloor Media, now one of the state's largest public relations firms.
John has been lucky enough to spend much of his life abroad, traveling in Asia, the South Pacific, Europe, Africa, and North America. Now a full-time novelist, John spends his days writing and going on family outings with his wife, Allison, and their two young children, Sophie and Jack.
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