This book will show you the difference between the Chinese people and the Chinese Government, how the Chinese survive despite their Communist controllers.

If Min Li did everything right, she never would’ve survived in the fast-changing world of modern China.  Growing up in the countryside, Min Li knew that doing well in school could change her family’s history and end the abject poverty in which they lived.  But Chinese custom dictated that she obey her father who sold her into a marriage with a boy who had twice attempted to rape her.  If she obeyed her father, not only would she remain in poverty, but she would have suffered abuse the rest of her life.

Secretly helped by her mother, Min Li fled the countryside and took her chances in the big city without the permission of the government or her family.  Here, she learned to be independent and to rely on herself.  But that independence came with a price, and Min Li came face to face with the conflict between traditional Chinese society and the trappings of modern China, including corrupt government, organized crime, and even human trafficking. Trapped in the Middle East, Min Li became an unwitting victim only to be saved by the most unlikely of heroes, an American teacher whom she once loved twenty years before in China.

One cannot read a newspaper today without seeing something about China, its growing threat to world peace, the political turmoil of recent purges, the mushrooming growth of its upper class, but we rarely read about the Chinese people, the average Chinese citizen struggling to survive in the slums and block apartments of its titan cities and the poverty of the countryside.  We read rags-to-riches stories, but we know nothing of the people who consider success as merely being free of tyrannical employers and bondage to a small plot of land.  Min Li’s Perfect Place is the story of Min Li and her quest to live a comfortable life in a system that still keeps women under the yoke of their fathers and husbands.

Min Li’s Perfect Place can best be described as literary fiction, but it is truly historical, albeit recent history.  Just under 86,000 words, I’ve included a glossary of Chinese names and words that appear throughout the book.  There is nothing sexually explicit in the book, and I’ve refrained from using any English vulgarity, which I believe contribute to the wholesome attitude of the main character and makes it suitable for school libraries.

Praise for Min Li’s Perfect Place

Pat Nohrden’s novel, The Perfect Place, is the second in his series following his debut of The Crystal Monkey.  The Prefect Place is a compelling story revolving around the journey of Min Lee as she escapes the cultural revolution of Communist China and comes face to face with the corruption of a modernizing China, including organized crime and human trafficking.  It is story of honor, duty, and triumphs and hardships of life. This page-turning novel is a great read and wonderfully written. Nohrden is a wonderful story teller creating likable characters and a moving, powerful plot.

— Debra Hellen, Author of Chasing Evil’s Shadow:

There is a subtle yet captivating simplicity to Pat Nohrden’s The Perfect Place that contrasts well with the complications of personal, familial, and cultural tragedy that weaves throughout the story of Min Li.  The tragedies, misfortunes, and vagaries of life that surround Min Li are also threaded with her good fortune, a fortune born of Min Li’s tenacity and strong character.  The perfect place that Min Li discovers is not a physical space or even a circumstance, but a hope that rises above the often calamitous conditions of life.  

–Joseph Bell, Director of Permanent Deaconate Formation and Chancellor, Diocese of Reno:

The Perfect Place is the excellent second part begun by the first book The Crystal Monkey.  The first novel acquaints us with the horror of the Chinese Cultural Revolution and the chaos that spread to all of China.  The second focuses on the struggle of a poor peasant farming family trying to survive and prosper in the chaos. The oldest daughter has completely rejected the path laid down by the Party.  She is determined to survive and prosper and help her family do the same.  Severely hampered by an abusive father who is a product of the new China, caring only for himself and blowing all of the family’s money on himself, and constantly abusing is wife whose health is getting worse, Min Li becomes a successful business woman, but her mother, her dearest treasure, will not live to enjoy it.  She wants a special place for her tomb where her husband will never go.  The found a place that made her mother’s heart happy.  Then, in a final twist of irony, she meets the American she fell in love with a decade ago, and they are reunited.  Finally, hope triumphs amid the chaos of modern China.

–Larry Hyslop, International Education Consultant