Nanjing 1937 — Ye Zhaoyan

A masterpiece by one of China's bestselling contemporary novelists, Nanjing 1937 tells the epic story of a passionate courtship played out against the backdrop of one of the century's most harrowing scenes of war.

Ding Wenyu is a philandering professor famous for storming out of class if there aren't enough pretty girls to teach. When he attends the wedding of the beautiful Ren Yuyuan, he falls hopelessly in love with her. Embarking with single-minded resolve to win her heart, he writes daily love letters and makes unabashed overtures to no avail, all the while blissfully unaware of the mounting threat of the Japanese, whose siege of the historic capital city will result in the rape of thousands and murder on an unimaginable scale. A love story devastatingly linked to a nation's inexorable fate, this swirling tempest of a novel moves us from antic heights to tragic depths while vividly evoking a prosperous China on the brink of political upheaval.