Leaving Point

This sequel to Vander Els's Bomber's Moon relates the events that occur while Ruth, now 14, waits with her family for official permission to leave postliberation China. Her parents' mission is crowded with other families anxious to leave, and their nervousness builds as anti-Western sentiment increases around them. Amid these volatile, confusing circumstances, Ruth forges a tenuous friendship with an ardent revolutionarya young woman not much older than herselfand finds that the bonds of friendship transcend political ideology. Ruth's story provides an authentic and gripping look at China's often violent struggle to revolutionize and modernize its society. The author does not resort to reductive or one-sided analysis; instead, the novel's events reflect the range of moral complexities and ambiguities attending such a process. The pulls and tugs of family life are portrayed with equal insight, and the result is an unusually rich, provocative and satisfying historical novel. Ages 12-up. (November)