This is a massive novel, in length, breadth, and depth. It sweeps from China to America to England, and in a half-century of colorful action it ranges from the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 to the critical struggles of 1950. The author brings warmth of feeling and the light of understanding to many and varied Characters, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Sun Yat-sen, and Chiang Kai-shek.... A major work, this novel is in some ways the most searching yet written by the Nobel Prize winner....