For readers of Wiebe's Of This Earth: A Mennonite Boyhood in the Boreal Forest and Sandra Birdsell's The Russländer comes an epic novel on the Mennonite experience, by a Governor General's Literary Award-winning author.

The Blue Mountains of China tells the unforgettable story of a group of Russian Mennonites in search of a land that would give them religious freedom. Alive with the excitement of a journey that begins in the oppressive poverty of a Russian village and ends on the Canadian prairies and in the Chaco Boreal of Paraguay, this is the story of a remarkable group of men and women—all determined, above all else, to triumph in their quest.

More than a saga of generations, The Blue Mountains of China is Rudy Wiebe's stirring testimony to the enduring human spirit.

Rudy Wiebe was born near Fairholme, Saskatchewan in 1934. From the University of Alberta, he received a B.A. 1956 and a M.A. in Creative Writing in 1960. He studied under a Rotary International Fellowship at the University of Tuebingen in West Germany, and in 1962 he received a Bachelor of Theology degree from the Mennonite Brethren Bible College. In 1962ᆧ63 he was editor of the Mennonite Brethren Herald, a position which he resigned because of the controversy over his first novel,Peace Shall Destroy Many. From 1967 to 1992 he was Professor of Creative Writing and English at the University of Alberta. Wiebe has published twenty-five books, including nine novels and the non-fiction best-sellerStolen Life: The Journey of a Cree Woman, co-authored with Yvonne Johnson. He was awarded the Governor General’s Award for fiction forThe Temptations Of Big Bear in 1973, and again in 1994 forA Discovery Of Strangers. He is also the winner of the Lorne Pierce Gold Metal of the Royal Society of Canada for his contribution to Canadian literature ླ87). Wiebe has served as chairman of both the Writer’s Guild of Alberta and the Writers’ Union of Canada. He now lives in Edmonton, Alberta.

Rudy Wiebe's profile page

George Bowering
George Bowering, Canada’s first Poet Laureate, was born in the Okanagan Valley.

After serving as an aerial photographer in the Royal Canadian Air Force, Bowering earned a BA in English and an MA in History at the University of British Columbia, where he became one of the co-founders of the avant-garde poetry magazine TISH. He has taught literature at the University of Calgary, the University of Western Ontario and Simon Fraser University, and he continues to act as a Canadian literary ambassador at international conferences and readings.

A distinguished novelist, poet, editor, professor, historian and tireless supporter of fellow writers, Bowering has authored more than 80 books, including works of poetry, fiction, autobiography, biography and youth fiction. His writing has also been translated into French, spanish, Italian, German, Chinese and Romanian.

In 2002, Bowering was recognized by the Vancouver Sun as one of the most influential people in British Columbia.

Eva-Marie Kröller
Eva-Marie Kröller is currently the Chair of the Comperative Literature Program at the University of British Columbia. George Bowering: Bright Circles of Colour was published by Talonbooks in 1992. Recently, she has co-edited Cambridge History of Canadian Literature, published by Cambridge University Press.

Eva-Marie Kroller's profile page

"Wiebe succeeds in making [history] dramatic, intriguing, romantic and tragic." —Calgary Herald