Other Rivers

'Memorable... One of [China's] most astute and sensitive foreign observers' Financial Times

'Compassionate... full of warmth' Guardian

More than two decades after teaching English in Sichuan Province, Peter Hessler returned to teach China's next generation. In doing so, he is able to tell an intimately unique story about the country's incredible transformation.

Hessler's students embrace the astonishing new opportunities China's boom affords as they navigate governmental restrictions with pragmatism and a sense of irony. And through his own twin daughters' education, he witnesses first-hand the intense pressures of China's extreme meritocratic system.

Other Rivers demonstrates how education is the perfect lens for examining China's past, present and future - one that also shines a mirror onto how we raise our own future generations.