Nanking

By Kevin A. Kent

In 1937, the Japanese invaded Nanking, China, and a terrible holocaust began. But amidst the depraved brutality, and terrible suffering, one unexpected heroine emerged: Minnie Vautrin, an American teacher and missionary who helped to found China's Ginling Girls College. There, in that college meant for 300 women, Vautrin risked her life to protect and shelter ten thousand girls from the horrors of the cruel and devastating Nanking invasion. Nanking is a story rich in human drama. Vautrin's friend, Yen Hsu, Chiang Kai Chek's leading diplomat, was not Vautrin's to love, but his daughters found their way to her during their greatest struggle, and she ensured their survival. But Vautrin was forever haunted by what she had seen, and she took her own life on May 16, 1941.Nevertheless, her legacy of hope, courage, and incredible bravery is sure to inspire the heroine-or hero-in all of us. And thanks to Kevin A. Kent's brilliant novel, it's ours to experience in these pages, as well.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1419616021
• ISBN13: 9781419616020
• Release Date: February 2006
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Pub
• Length: 337 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 1.0" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

Petite Woman - love God, had gun and would kill?

Kevin Kent, wrote novel Nanking, based on a true story about Minnie Vautrin, an American missionary and educator to China at the Rape of Nanking 1937. He was feverish in telling the story with a note: Though based on historical events, many characters are fiction and created to enhance the story. However, the historical content must remain accurate. It was obvious that Kevin did not do his homework well.In the FORWARD,. . . with the rise of Sun Yat-sen and his son-in-law, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek ... Both married the famous Soong sisters and they were brother-in-law.Confucius was a famous poet (p129). Confucius was honored as a teacher and philosopher with no known poetry work.However, the Minnie Vautrin created through his mind and fabricated in the book was a petite American Mid-west woman who loved God, had gun and would kill - a strange and dangerous combination and misconception, contrary to the caring and loving American lady respected as the Goddess of Mercy so fondly remembered and honored by the citizens of Nanking. Will the real Minnie Vautrin please stand up!

A powerful, haunting novel

Nanking is a profoundly powerful story about an American hero who stands proud in the face of mortal danger. It is a haunting portrait of an event that seems to have been deleted from the history books. I had never heard of Minnie Vautrin or of any American hero saving 10,000 lives in China. I read Shindler of course, but I had to wonder why was all this important Chinese American history buried? The novel is a well-paced work of literature. In the beginning, (while the exposition and back story are cunningly pieced together) it reads a bit slower than I might have expected. This was because the first section is composed of historical set-up which I for one appreciated. It definitely shows Kent's comfort in the historical genre. Once the story exploded into action, Nanking becomes a page turner in the truest sense, a novel that I had a hard time setting down. I felt like I was witnessing and living history rather than reading about it. Kent paints a beautiful and haunting, if at times brutal, portrait of war torn China. It was stated quite clearly that Nanking the novel is historical fiction, but the fictional elements are woven so tightly into the story, creating a sense of wholeness that many historical novels lack. Kent has managed to illuminate a period of time that I knew nothing about and has done it in a way that will stick with me for a long, long time. Whether you are a student of history or just someone looking for a good read, I highly suggest this one.

Kevin Kent's Nanking is Mesmerizing

I couldn't put this book down. Kevin Kent has written a tribute to an American herione who saved 10,000 lives during the siege of Nanking. His fictionalization of the storyline seems plausible. He intertwines fiction with fact beautifully. I highly recommend this as a satisfyingly good read.

A Powerful Story That Shocks My Soul

As I turned the pages, I couldn't help but feel panic rush in waves about my body, with heart pounding and head sweating. I could see vividly the petit American missionary, Minnie Vautrin, running the risk of her own life, attempted to rescue thousands of innocent women and girls from the savage attacks. When people urged her to leave as the invaders were coming close, she refused, saying, "And what of the girls who have no place to go? Am I to leave them to fend for themselves? No, it is God's will that I stay to protect my campus and my girls." I believe the unselfish acts, inspired by faith in God, are true because of my own personal experiences with those missionaries in my childhood in 1930s in China. I have experienced on a personal level of the friendship of the American people towards the Chinese. There was and still is a great love shared across the pacific. As a creative writer of fiction myself, I know the author had tough choices as how to handle the protagonist when the drama comes to an end. She does not have to end up in a very painful way. However, as a seasoned psychiatrist tackling human mind traumas, I understand the author's point in concluding the drama the way he did. Minnie is made up from flesh and blood, which has a limit for the endurable. By all accounts she meets the criterion of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder with Delayed Onset by today's diagnostic manual. The kind of depression is frequently seen in our practice among American heroic veterans. This outcome makes Minnie's personality, faith, and conduct even more convincingly true and moving. Minnie Vautrin is a goddess indeed, one who will live in our mind forever.

Unforgettable

Part of Nanking's story is the horror of the events themselves. The other part is that no one seems to know about it. How could this shocking portion of recent history have been omitted from our history classes? Its secret is coming out... as are so many others we are discovering that have been carefully swept under the rug until now. Kevin Kent's telling of this utterly wrenching, horrific slice in history is one part passionate historian... and one part brilliant storyteller. That latter is key; because it allows the former's message to come through in no uncertain terms. This story needs and deserves to be told - yet the events and facts are harsh, brutal and incomprensibly inhuman. The scale of it is staggering; in numbers, far greater than the number of Jews annihilated in Nazi Germany. In brutality, probably on a par. But our media-saturated American culture mostly hasn't even heard of this broad-stroke genocide... and I'm betting wouldn't be willing to sit down and read a stark, historical account of it. Enter Kevin Kent. His superb storytelling abilities present Nanking's story within a deeply human context. Giving us the grand scale picture in no uncertain terms; but also bringing it home to us through the eyes of people - some real, some fictional - that we come to know, understand and care deeply about. In turn, it sparks an interest in knowing more about Nanking and this portion of history which may have been ignored in America... but it truly affects us to this day. Kent calls it a "novel based on a true story". Minnie Vautrin was in fact, a real person... one whose accomplishments are astounding. In my book, she's a true American hero. It's hard to imagine a selflessness and caring for others in today's culture that could rival hers. Right there, it makes her story one that should be told over and over again. There are other people in the book who were real too - and some that weren't. Yet they all weave togther, make sense and matter intensely as they spring to life amidst events that are indeed heartbreakingly true on the pages of "Nanking". As I read this book, it played on the screen of my mind like a feature film. Powerful, technicolor images... a gorgeous land, filled with fascinating people... events that stagger the mind... involving people whose love, caring and passion I'll never forget. Nanking. Its story should NOT be forgotten. Thanks to Kevin Kent... perhaps it never will.

Review by New York Times best-selling author Ellen Tanner Marsh

All too often in the literary world, the horrors of war are made even more grotesque by bad writing about war, from poorly plotted action-adventure tales to cloying melodramas. In contrast, author Kevin A. Kent's WWII epic, Nanking, is a highly-informed, crisply written novel that, though set in a period of intense conflict, does not rely upon the setting alone to drive the tautly-paced narrative. Nanking is the story of the eponymous city in China that was the target of invading Japanese forces in the late 1930s. More than a historic account of a siege, it is the wrenching drama of the everyday heroes-mostly foreign-who stayed through the city's occupation in order to help save its beleaguered residents. Kent's heroine is diminutive Minnie Vautrin, an idealistic American missionary who chooses to remain in the doomed city to safeguard the students of the all-girls school she administers. Yet this is no overblown melodrama; Minnie's journey is tragic, and Kent knows better than to romanticize even the most inconsequential detail. Yes, the reality is stark, but the tone is never maudlin, while Kent's carefully executed series of flashbacks, along with deliberate and tautly stylized pacing, allow readers to empathize with the characters and the situation-one that, thankfully, falls outside the bounds of common experience. Nanking is vivid and cinematic, a tale that is evocative of a place and time that, played out on so many ferocious fronts, forever changed the world. Readers will no doubt look forward to future works by this author-although writing a novel as compelling as Nanking would be a feat, indeed.