River Town

Two Years on the Yangtze

By: Peter Hessler

Narrated by: Peter Berkrot

In the heart of China's Sichuan province, amid the terraced hills of the Yangtze River valley, lies the remote town of Fuling. Like many other small cities in this ever-evolving country, Fuling is heading down a new path of change and growth, which came into remarkably sharp focus when Peter Hessler arrived as a Peace Corps volunteer, marking the first time in more than half a century that the city had an American resident. Hessler taught English and American literature at the local college, but it was his students who taught him about the complex processes of understanding that take place when one is immersed in a radically different society.

Poignant, thoughtful, funny, and enormously compelling, River Town is an unforgettable portrait of a city that is seeking to understand both what it was and what it someday will be.

©2006 Peter Hessler (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Hessler's writing is lovely. His observations are evocative, insightful, and often poignant--and just as often, funny. It's a pleasure to read of his (mis)adventures. Hessler returned to the U.S. with a new perspective on modern China and its people. After reading River Town, you'll have one, too." (Amazon.com review)

Fascinating insights

This book was a fascinating inside look from an American living in China, who learned Chinese, and had all kinds of adventures in his two years there. Almost as good as going there, myself!

A true and honest story. Intriguing and touching.

The author honestly revealed the life of a secluded people in a Chinese town at the beginning of China’s opening up policy.

Fabulous Read!

If you have never been to China, get ready! Peter will take you there! After reading Oracle Bones I quickly grabbed the other two. The performance was just the best also!

Stellar story, middling performance

Great story. It mirrors a great deal of my time as a teacher in East Asia. I felt nostalgic, almost reminiscing alongside the author despite teaching in a different but similar country.

Something that is repeated in these reviews incessantly is the narrator’s weak grasp of Chinese pronunciation. Before reading i thought the reviews were filled with pedantic crybabies eager to show off their knowledge of the Chinese language, but after listening through this book, I think the criticisms are warranted.

Couldn’t the narrator have familiarized himself even somewhat with Chinese mandarin pronunciation? “Cheng’DUH”? Really?

If you can get past the strangeness with the pronunciation, it’s really a fantastic story. Loved it.

Great story of spending two years in China

I really enjoyed this book, especially after spending a year teaching at a university in Shanghai. Some shared experiences, some very different. I like how personal Peter makes this while sharing history and culture. Well done.

A charming and educational book

Well written and captivating
I learned many insights about rural China at the end of the 20th century, especially about the rural life of the peasant class
Very easy to read and the author draws you into his 2 years of life experience with the Peace Corps in a somewhat remote river city of 200,000 people
It was fascinating

Very unexpected.

Any additional comments?

I picked this up on a whim, it was on sale. It started out a bit slowly, but really sucked me in. I really enjoyed it, especially the last 1/2. What a fascinating couple of years he spent in China.

An interesting look at life in China

The author spent two years in China during the early 1990s while serving in the Peace Corps. He lived in the remote town of Fuling, in the middle of China's Sichuan province, amid the terraced hills of the Yangtze River valley. When Peter Hessler arrived as a Peace Corps volunteer, it was the first time in more than half a century that the city had an American resident. Hessler taught English and American literature at the local college, but he learned as much as he taught, simply by connecting with the residents in the town and with his students. Hessler doesn't hesitate to turn the magnifying glass on himself and the funny situations he stumbles into as he tries to understand a completely different culture and how he can fit into it.

This is a funny, and touching book that makes China come alive for the reader in a new way.

Excellent book; terrible narration

I should have heeded the warnings of other reviewers. This is indeed an excellent book read by a terrible narrator. Why would one choose to have a book about china be read by a narrator who doesn’t bother to learn how to pronounce Chinese? I returned the book before reaching the end of the second chapter because I could no longer stand the references to the “komingdan” “sayzhyan” etc.

Excellent book let down by poor narration

I really enjoyed this book. Having spent a year in China at about the same time referred to in this book, it brought back many memories of the China of that period. The author is a keen observer of daily life and an excellent writer. I also admired his courage in getting out among the people and his persistence in learning the language.

The narration of the story is quite another matter. The book is sprinkled with Chinese words and while the narrator can be forgiven for not pronouncing them all correctly, no attempt has been made to find out the correct pronunciation for even the most commonly used words, some of which are repeated literally hundreds of times throughout the book, always incorrectly. In addition, whenever the book quotes a Chinese person the reader goes into some weird accent, a bit like a caricature of a Mexican accent. I was left thinking that the narrator had probably never met a Chinese person in his life.