Book description
China's Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) was one of the bloodiest conflicts in human history; somewhere between twenty and forty million people lost their lives, in battle, or to starvation and disease. With the exception of World War II, more lives were lost in this conflict than in any conflict in history.…
- Coming soon!
Why read it?
1 author picked The China Memoirs of Thomas Rowley as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Disguised as a long-lost memoir, this compact Taiping Rebellion tale surprised me by its stately prose, exquisitely controlled by Barre from the first page to the last.
When the fictionalized Rowley is separated from (the historical) Frederick Townsend Ward’s battalion, he is captured by a beautiful but fierce Taiping rebel, Sweet Little Sister. Rowley’s simple, unironic first-person voice is perfectly suited to his worshipful love for his captress, as she leads him around the rebel camp on a leash, alternately teasing and sexually tormenting him.
The full-blown sadomasochism of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s Venus in Furs and Pauline Réage’s The Story…
From Isham's list on novels that immerse you in Chinese history.
If you love The China Memoirs of Thomas Rowley...
December on 5C4
Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!
On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…
Want books like The China Memoirs of Thomas Rowley?
Our community of 13,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like The China Memoirs of Thomas Rowley.
Share your top 3 reads of 2025!
And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.
1,381
readers submitted
so far, will you?
📚 If you like The China Memoirs of Thomas Rowley, you might also like...
The Tao of Poison
A poisonous maiden, a Daoist sex cult, and a violent insurgency.
The polyandrous Yan family in China's rural Shaanxi Province takes in two carpenter brothers. When one brother is convicted of murder after killing their neighbor in a dispute, a constable threatens to expose the family's rumored polyandry and extorts…
Doctor Lucifer
Dr. Mark Lin, a cynical and disillusioned internist, is the target of a hacker known as Doctor Lucifer. Three patients at Ivory Memorial Hospital suffer from medication errors, created by the hacker, yet Mark is forced to take the blame. He knows a computer worm is spreading and crippling network…
