Winner of the Baifang Schell Book Prize • 2025 Orwell Prize Finalist
One of The Washington Post’s 50 Notable Nonfiction Books of 2024
“A sprawling, complex morality tale, sweeping us along.” —The Wall Street Journal
“In telling this personal story about family memory, exile and return, the book also takes in the breadth of [China’s] evolution during the 20th century.” —The Washington Post
“This book’s power comes from Wong’s broad sense of the patterns of Chinese history, reflected in the lives of a father and son, and from his ability to toggle effortlessly between the epic and the intimate.” —Gal Beckerman, The Atlantic
“Edward Wong’s exquisite family chronicle achieves a level of humane illumination that only one of America’s finest reporters on China could deliver. In tracing his father’s journey—from Hong Kong to Xinjiang to America—Wong gives us a profound story of modern China itself. Anyone who once was absorbed by the power of Wild Swans will savor this meditation on memory, history, and belonging.” —Evan Osnos, author of Age of Ambition, winner of the National Book Award
One of Foreign Policy’s Most Anticipated Books of 2024
An epic story of modern China that weaves a riveting family memoir with vital reporting by the New York Times diplomatic correspondent
The son of Chinese immigrants in Washington, DC, Edward Wong grew up among family secrets. His father toiled in Chinese restaurants al³.
![At the Edge of Empire: A Family's Reckoning with China [Hardcover]](/itemImage/2/6/1/7/2_6846218.jpg "At the Edge of Empire: A Family's Reckoning with China [Hardcover]")