'At last, from the crest of a little cliff, we gazed with emotion on the rushing waters of the great river. How touching it was to see again our childhood friend, and to think that the very waters we now gaze upon will, after who knows how many weeks, and after how many strange sights and unknown scenes, pass our childhood homes.' Sid Smith's second novel is set in the early 1900's, in a place as inaccessible, mysterious and beguiling as the setting of SOMETHING LIKE A HOUSE. In A HOUSE BY THE RIVER, two western missionaries visit a lonely community by the river. The wife, Grace, keeps a diary, and through this the reader begins to find out about Chinese ideograms and the foundations of Christianity - something so world-shattering that a prominent Chinese official wants it to remain suppressed...