Lost in China is the true story of two young children stranded in Western China during World War II. It’s a memoir that reads like a novel.
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About the Author
Jennifer Dobbs’s experience of being lost in China led her to become a Montessori teacher and earn a master’s in school counseling. Currently, Dobbs is dedicated to animal rescue, finding homes for lost and homeless dogs and cats. She lives in Memphis, Tennessee. Lost in China is her first book.
Photo by Elven Blalock
“This is a story of a child, and of a journey. At its heart, it is the tale of how two young children in China, having had their mother trapped by war in Hong Kong and their father killed there, crossed a world in conflict. Jennifer Dobbs tells her singular and moving story, summoning impressions and memories of a childhood in China, a family shattered, and a father lost.”
—Robert Bickers, associate pro vice-chancellor for post graduate research, professor of history, University of Bristol
“We may find elements of Dobbs’s childhood odyssey in other tales, but rarely assembled in one true story like this. From our first glimpse of a stained wooden box holding family secrets, we are immersed—by her side as she and her brother cross interior China and journey onward to the United States. We are with them as they flee aerial bombs and sway up steep ridges on sedan chairs in the pitch dark. Even against the stark realities of a world at war, one senses Dobbs’s love for China in unexpectedly charming scenes: water buffalos in rice paddies; market day among ethnic minorities; traversing a suspension bridge made entirely of woven bamboo as her father, to whom the memoir is dedicated, snaps photos on his Leica. All in all, a unique and compelling read.”
—Claire Chao, Writer’s Digest Grand Prize Winner and author of Remembering Shanghai: A Memoir of Socialites, Scholars and Scoundrels