New York: Pantheon, (2011) dj. Hardcover first edition - An historical novel set in China during one of the darkest moments of the twentieth century - the Rape of Nanjing - and based on the true story of Minnie Vautrin, an American missionary and the dean of Jinling Womens College. "In 1937, with the Japanese poised to invade Nanjing, [she] decides to remain at the school, convinced that her American citizenship will help her safeguard the welfare of the Chinese men and women who work there. She is painfully mistaken. In the aftermath of the invasion, the school becomes a refugee camp for more than ten thousand homeless women and children, and Vautrin must struggle, day after day, to intercede on behalf of the hapless victims. Even when order and civility are eventually restored, Vautrin remains deeply embattled, and she is haunted by the lives she could not save." Author's note. 303 pp. Illustrated endpapers. ISBN: 978-0307379764.