The internationally bestselling novel about love, war, and The Great Wall of China…
John Shors reimagined one of the world’s greatest love stories–the romance that inspired the Taj Mahal–in his critically acclaimed, international bestseller Beneath a Marble Sky. Now, with Unbound, Shors recreates an ancient and celebrated Chinese legend about a pair of young lovers separated by war and the … and the Great Wall.
The year is 1548, and the Chinese Empire faces an imminent Mongol invasion. All that prevents the violent end of a dynasty is the Great Wall. Yet even this famed fortification has weaknesses, and against his will, a talented Chinese craftsman is taken from his home and wife, so that he may labor alongside the wall’s defenders.
Fan has been missing for a year when his wife, Meng, decides to do the impossible–to leave everyone and everything she knows in a daunting effort to find him. At a time when many women fear even stepping outside their homes, Meng disguises herself as a man and begins a perilous journey of deliverance.
As two armies gather at the Great Wall, the fates of Fan and Meng collide with a Mongol horseman seeking redemption, a Chinese concubine fighting injustice, and a ruthless general determined to destroy them all.
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Interesting tale from the end of the Mongol incursions into China highlighting the importance of the Great Wall. The story has six narrators. The author takes the time to continually update the mental and physical status of each of the narrators. This may be an example of the plot getting in the way of the story. May have been better as a short story.