Book summary

The story of a rambling voyage down the Yangtzee river into parts unknown. A young American engineer travels to China in the late 1940s with the idea of surveying the Yangtzee River for the construction of a dam. The farther he progresses inland, the more disastrous the trip becomes and the less apparent the need or purpose of a dam appears to him. A powerful story of conflict and self-discovery.

Media reviews

"A rewarding novel; it is clearly thought and beautifully projected on the screen of the imagination with a word choice which reminds me of Willa Cather. It makes good the promise he gave us in his war novels. And symbolically it induces what is rather rare in books these days: a feeling of humility towards the East."