Justin Hill Books In Order

The Drink and Dream Teahouse

From a spellbinding storyteller comes a highly original, inventive novel that transports us to another world. In the small Chinese town of Shaoyang, times are changing rapidly, and the villagers are struggling to keep up with a China that has transformed radically not only since 1949 but since 1989 and the turbulent days of the protests of Tiananmen Square. The colorful array of characters in this touching, funny and memorable novel come from various generations and all corners of the village like Madame Fan, who sings opera from her balcony each morning and is trying to marry off her young daughter Peach, and Da Shan, who has returned home with newfound wealth from the big city to a town he no longer recognizes. Justin Hill has written a beautiful, utterly memorable, and tender story about the clash of the old world and the new.

Passing Under Heaven

Based on the extraordinary life of China’s greatest woman poet, this haunting novel vividly brings to life a thousand year old story of love and loss.

In the twilight years of the Tang Dynasty, a young girl is given up by her mother and orphaned before she is five, yet she rises to become one of the most celebrated women of her age. Lily s childhood is a place of pavilions and temples, lakes and mountains, sages, scholars, and poets. But it is also founded on ancient cruelties and injustice. As Lily struggles for freedom, she uses her gift for invention to transform herself, from willful daughter to adored concubine, from notorious courtesan to great poetess. Then, as the barbarian hordes gather for invasion, the fate that has always awaited her draws near Based on historical fact, Passing Under Heaven is more than the story of a remarkable woman; it is a chronicle of the passing of China s golden age into civil war and ruin.

Winner of the Somerset Maugham Prize, Justin Hill is also the author of Ciao Asmara.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Has Li Mu Bai finally met defeat by the mighty Shaolin adept Golden Spear Cheung? It certainly looks that way. But like Li has said in the past; ‘Never underestimate the power of Tai Chi Sword style!’ Also Jade Fox reveals a potentially crippling revelation regarding Wudan kung fu. It’s Shaolin vs. Wudan in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon vol. 4!

A Bend in the Yellow River

Arriving in Yuncheng, China as a starry eyed 21 year old teacher, Justin Hill expected the legend. Slowly, over the two years he spent teaching in the city, Hill began to gain insights into the real lives of contemporary China, realizing that nowhere was more authentically Chinese than this outpost nestling in a bend of the yellow river. Battling with the daily contraditions of a rich spiritual and cultural history and a Communist present, adapting to the gradual influence of the West with a robust good humor, the people of Yuncheng are a vital part of their country’s future. A Bend in the Yellow River is a unique view of a different way of life.

Ciao Asmara

A novelist’s deeply affecting account of working as a teacher in the war torn African state of Eritrea shortlisted for Britain s prestigious Thomas Cook Award.