A Tale of Red Pekin

China, 1900. The Boxer Rebellion has ignited the northern provinces, and foreign missionaries and their families find themselves trapped behind siege walls, their faith offering little protection against the rising tide of violence. Through the eyes of twelve-year-old Cecilia St. John, we witness the terror of the uprising filtered through childhood innocence. Her father, a missionary doctor, has spent four years in China bringing medicine and salvation to the locals, but now the family faces the brutal reality of anti-foreign sentiment turned lethal. Cecilia narrates both the intimate details of missionary life, her bond with her friend Nina, her complicated feelings about her father's work, the small homesicknesses that compound in times of danger, and the mounting dread as Boxer forces close in. This is history rendered through the particular lens of a young girl trying to make sense of a world that has suddenly become hostile. What makes the novel endure is its unflinching portrayal of how war looks when seen through young, bewildered eyes, and the uncomfortable questions it raises about missionary work, cultural collision, and what we owe to places we only briefly inhabit.