Book cover of The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom

Book description

In sumptuous and illuminating detail, Simon Winchester, the bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman ("Elegant and scrupulous"—New York Times Book Review) and Krakatoa ("A mesmerizing page-turner"—Time) brings to life the extraordinary story of Joseph Needham, the brilliant Cambridge scientist who unlocked the most closely held secrets of China,…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked The Man Who Loved China as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I am delighted to recommend this book. Not only is it a fascinating true story, but it is also a page-turner. The story starts in 1937 when Joseph Needham, an English biochemist, falls in love with a Chinese student. He travels to China with her, where he begins a lifelong quest to document the scientific contributions of ancient China.

If you love The Man Who Loved China...

Book cover of Tsunami

Tsunami by LeeAnn Pickrell,

On the morning of December 26, 2004, an undersea earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. The resulting tsunami killed an estimated 230,000 people across fourteen countries, from Indonesia to Sri Lanka to Thailand to the Maldives to India and all the way to East Africa.…

Want books like The Man Who Loved China?

Our community of 13,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like The Man Who Loved China.

Browse books like The Man Who Loved China

Book cover of Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China
Book cover of Oracle Bones: A Journey Through Time in China
Book cover of Life and Death in Shanghai

Share your top 3 reads of 2025!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,395

readers submitted
so far, will you?

📚 If you like The Man Who Loved China, you might also like...

Book cover of What's Gotten Into You: The Story of Your Body's Atoms, from the Big Bang Through Last Night's Dinner

What's Gotten Into You by Dan Levitt,

What's Gotten Into You is a wondrous, wildly ambitious, and vastly entertaining work of popular science that tells the awe-inspiring story of the elements that make up the human body, and how these building blocks of life travelled billions of miles and across billions of years to make us who…

Book cover of The Angel Makers: Arsenic, a Midwife, and Modern History's Most Astonishing Murder Ring

The Angel Makers by Patti McCracken,

It’s a real life Arsenic and Old Lace. 

In 1929, a dark secret at the heart of a Hungarian farming village was finally exposed. For more than 15 years, Nagyrev had harbored a group of serial killers, one of the largest murder rings ever recorded. They came to be known…

5 book lists we think you will like!