Love in the Shadow of Mao

China, the epic Long March and Mao’s Revolution

A love story both historical and intimate peopled by fascinating characters

Julia Harrison, rich, beautiful and privileged, wife of a U.S. Congressman. What is she doing in Maoist China? Is she to be rescued or investigated?

Jen Chi-man, was born in the wilderness, orphaned by war, reared in the Red Army and sent to America to become a scientist.

He returns to a world he no longer knows.

Catherine Lee, a Chinese-American doctor from Brooklyn, imbued with a romantic love of the motherland she has never seen, longing to “serve the people”.

In their stories, we get glimpses of Mao, his power-hungry wife, foreign-educated Zhou Enlai and Madame Sun, revered widow of the founder of modern China, a committed Communist who lives in a mansion.

Joanne Elliott was born in New York in 1935 and has lived and worked in Japan, Hong Kong, UK and Ireland. She has published short stories in Woman’s Realm and Galway Magazine, two books on childhood diabetes, wrote and presented radio programmes for RTE (Irish National Radio) and edited and produced the local newspaper, The Inishbofin Inquirer, for seven years. In 1977, she founded Kellett School, now the British International School in Hong Kong. She lives in Belfast and the island of Inishbofin off the West Coast of Ireland.