Books like Three Kingdoms by Moss Roberts

In Benjamin P. Gibson’s return to his community after a 10‑year imprisonment, the village of St. Michael’s faces the harsh reality of post‑war survivor “crisis,” as family and tradition vie for survival.

Madeleine Thien’s memoir‑style novel traces an intergenerational Chinese family from Mao’s Cultural Revolution to present‑day Vancouver, exploring how political upheaval reshaped musicians, parents and children across time.

In late‑1970s China, a small town’s citizens endure political upheaval as one woman’s dissent triggers a chilling crackdown, revealing resilience amid oppression.

Based upon the historical bandit Song Jiang and his companions, this Chinese equivalent of the English classic Robin Hood and His Merry Men is an epic tale of rebellion against tyranny and has been thrilling and inspiring readers for hundreds of years. This edition of the classic J. H. Jackson translation features a new preface and introduction by Edwin Lowe, which gives the history of the book and puts the story into perspective for modern readers. First translated into English by Pearl S. Buck in 1933 as All Men Are Brothers, the original edition of the J.H. Jackson translation appeared under the title The Water Margin in 1937. In this updated edition, Edwin Lowe addresses many of the shortcomings found in the original J.H. Jackson translation, and replaces the original grit and flavor of Shuihui Zhuan found in Chinese versions, including the sexual seduction, explicit descriptions of brutality and barbarity, and the profane voices of the thieving, scheming, drinking, fighting, pimping lower classes of Song Dynasty China. Similarly, the Chinese deities, Bodhisattvas, gods and demons have reclaimed their true names, as has the lecherous, over-sexed and ill-fated Ximen Qing. All of which was sanitized out when first published in 1937. While Chinese in origin, the themes of The Water Margin are universal enough that it has served as a source of inspiration for numerous movies, television shows and video games up to the present day. About the Author: Shi Naian is one of the respected elders of Chinese literature. In addition to authoring Water Margin, he was also the teacher of Lo Kuan-chung, author of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. J. H. Jackson first came into contact with Chinese culture through his involvement with Presbyterian missionary efforts. His translation of The Water Margin was the first to closely follow the text of the Chinese original. It was his only translated work. Edwin Lowe is Associate Lecturer of Chinese Studies in the Department of Asian Studies at Macquarie University, Sydney. He researches Chinese strategic and defense studies, comparative cultural and philosophical approaches to warfare, and the evolving nature of conflict and warfare.

A bondservant’s life becomes intertwined with a Jewish family's history in early 19th‑century China, weaving together culture, faith, and the realities of service.

In nineteenth-century China, "Wooden Fish Songs" were the laments sung by Chinese women for their men who went looking for a better life on "Gold Mountain" - America. In the novel Wooden Fish Songs, the voices of three extraordinary women speak across the decades to tell the story of one such real-life pioneer - Lue Gim Gong ("Double Brilliance"). After years of virtual indentured servitude in the West and New England, Lue put his genius for plants to work in Florida, creating the orange hybrids that earned him international renown as a "plant wizard." Lue's story is told by the three women who knew him best and begins with Sum Jui, his mother, who describes her attempts to shield her beloved son from bitter family rivalries. Interwoven with Sum Jui's account is that of Fanny Burlingame, the repressed but spirited daughter of a tyrannical New England merchant, who seeks solace both in the Bible and in laudanum. She becomes Lue's mentor and friend when the gifted and indomitable young man is brought to a Massachusetts town as an unwitting strikebreaker and stays to pursue his destiny. . Finally, Sheba, daughter of a slave, recounts her experiences working alongside Lue in the rugged Florida frontier of the 1870s. Her life and her husband's become intertwined with that of the Chinese man, who with his white benefactress dares defy racial prejudice and social convention to create an agricultural revolution with lessons learned in his native land. It is a triumph of cross-fertilization that stands as the novel's central metaphor for the strength that multiplicity and diversity can breed when fostered and not feared.