Waiting

Ha Jin's Waiting is a novel of suppressed desires set against the backdrop of Communist China. The book tells the story of Lin Kong, a Chinese army hospital doctor who, for legal and familial reasons, is unable to leave his arranged marriage in order to be with the woman he loves. Jin’s prose is never self-conscious or overwritten, and the book has the impressive simplicity and timelessness of a fable. Winner of the 1999 National Book Award.