Captured by enemy forces, Yu Yuan, a Chinese army officer serving in Korea in 1951, takes on the role of interpreter due to his proficiency in English, a role that places him in a conflict between his fellow prisoners and their captors.

"From Ha Jin, the widely acclaimed, award-winning author of Waiting and War Trash, comes a novel that takes his fiction to a new setting: 1990s America. We follow the Wu family - father Nan, mother Pingping, and son Taotao - as they fully sever their ties with China in the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and begin a new, free life in the United States." From the bookjacket.

Considers texts treating the diverse impacts of war on those who experience it, whether as soldiers or civilians, and examines the ways in which war is transformed through writing. Because the experience of war transcends geographical boundaries, genres, and specific conflicts, this book is organized thematically. The first volume highlights various approaches to war, from the theoretical to the experimental. The second volume considers texts centered on the experiences of those who encounter war, whether on the battlefield or the home front. The final volume explores a body of writing reflecting on the impacts of war on individuals, communities, cultures, and human values.