John Shors reimagined one of the world's greatest love stories--the romance that inspired the Taj Mahal--in his critically acclaimed, international bestseller Beneath a Marble Sky. Now, with Unbound, Shors recreates an ancient and celebrated Chinese legend about a pair of young lovers separated by war and the Great Wall.
The year is 1548, and the Chinese Empire faces an imminent Mongol invasion. All that prevents the violent end of a dynasty is the Great Wall. Yet even this famed fortification has weaknesses, and against his will, a talented Chinese craftsman is taken from his home and wife, so that he may labor alongside the wall's defenders.
Fan has been missing for a year when his wife, Meng, decides to do the impossible--to leave everyone and everything she knows in a daunting effort to find him. At a time when many women fear even stepping outside their homes, Meng disguises herself as a man and begins a perilous journey of deliverance.
As two armies gather at the Great Wall, the fates of Fan and Meng collide with a Mongol horseman seeking redemption, a Chinese concubine fighting injustice, and a ruthless general determined to destroy them all.
Praise for Unbound:
"Unbound is utterly captivating--an epic, historical page-turner with a beating heart. I loved it." -- Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
"In Unbound, John Shors draws us inside the impassioned history of China's Great Wall, through richly intertwined characters determined to live freely, and for love. A haunting tale of the enduring bonds that anchor and save us when all the other chains--poverty, enslavement, cruelty, degradation--have been broken. A gem of storytelling." -- Paula McLain, New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Wife
"An elegant and compelling epic told with Shors' trademark understanding of human nature and ability to create characters who touch our hearts. The setting - China's Great Wall - is as much a personality in the tale as the husband and wife who live, and love, in its shadow. In Unbound, history comes alive and literally takes your breath away and breaks your heart at the same time." -- M.J. Rose, New York Times bestselling author of The Library of Light and Shadow