Published in 2006, Oracle Bones: A Journey Through Time in China is the second book by Peter Hessler, a staff writer for The New Yorker and a former Peace Corps volunteer. While his debut, River Town , chronicled his years teaching English in a small Sichuan province, Oracle Bones expands the scope significantly. It is a book that functions much like the artifacts in its title: it digs beneath the surface to find the hidden scripts that dictate the fate of a civilization.
All three are available in EPUB format from the same retailers. Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler EPUB
The book’s title refers to the “oracle bones” of the Shang Dynasty—ox scapulae and turtle shells used for divination 3,000 years ago. These artifacts, inscribed with the earliest known examples of Chinese writing, serve as Hessler’s masterful metaphor. He argues that just as those bones bridged a prehistoric world to a literate civilization, modern China is a land of broken fragments trying to divine its future. Published in 2006, Oracle Bones: A Journey Through
Twenty years after its publication, Oracle Bones feels less like a travelogue and more like prophecy. Hessler predicted the anxiety of China’s middle class, the fracturing of rural identity, and the strange nostalgia for the Mao era before it became trendy. All three are available in EPUB format from
If you are about to start this book, here is what to watch for:
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