Pearl S. Buck · 1931 · exile

Pearl S. Buck's 1931 novel. The farmer Wang Lung builds a life on his land in northern China with his wife O-Lan, but drought and famine drive the family south to a great city, where they scrape by until a looting brings them fortune. They return to the land that is the source of all their rise and fall, as Wang Lung grows rich and his sons turn away from the earth.

1. 1
   Wang Lung's farm

   The small farm in the northern countryside where Wang Lung marries O-Lan and works the good earth, until drought and famine empty the land and force the family to flee.

2. 2
   The southern city

   The great city - Nanking - where the starving family survives on charity and rickshaw-pulling, until the chaos of a mob looting a rich house hands Wang Lung the gold that changes his fortune.

3. 3
   The land

   Home to the land with his new wealth, Wang Lung buys up the fields of the fallen great house and grows rich - though his sons, raised soft, no longer love the earth that made them.