In The New York Times Book Review, Jonathan Mirsky described it as 'eloquent and comprehensive.' In the San Francisco Chronicle, Minxin Pei called it 'by far the most thoughtful and well-crafted work on China written by an American journalist in recent years.” The Economist, in an unsigned review, questioned the emphasis on Ai Weiwei and dissident lawyer Chen Guangcheng 'whose well-documented lives and causes take up a little too much of the narrative. 'Some who tried succeeded many others did not.' Some of the featured subjects are prominent, including artist Ai Weiwei and economist Justin Yifu Lin others are not prominent citizens, including a teacher, a street sweeper, and an auctioneer imprisoned for bribing judges. The title refers to an emerging sense of individual aspiration, 'a belief in the sheer possibility to remake a life,' Osnos writes. Osnos chronicles their journeys and reflects on the political implications. Summary īased partly on Osnos' reports in The New Yorker, the book describes his travels in China, where he interviewed people swept up by economic, political, and social change.

The book was awarded the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 2014 and was a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. Īge of Ambition was originally published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2014. Age of Ambition chronicles the lives of people that Osnos came to know while he was in China from 2005 to 2013. Age of Ambition Chasing Fortune, Truth and Faith in the New China By: Evan Osnos Narrated by: Evan Osnos, George Backman Length: 16 hrs and 41 mins 4.5 (12 ratings) Try for 0.

And why does a government that has lifted more people from poverty than any other so strictly restrain freedom of expression? Based on years of research, Age of Ambition is a stunning narrative that reveals China as we have never understood it before.Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China is a non-fiction book by Evan Osnos, a staff writer at The New Yorker. It has more Christians than members of the Communist Party. It is the world’s largest buyer of Rolls Royces and Ferraris yet the word ‘luxury’ is banned from billboards.

Here is a China infused with a sense of boundless possibility and teeming romance. Together they describe the defining clash taking place today: between the individual and the Communist Party's struggle to retain control. The richest woman in China, a recycling tycoon known as the 'Wastepaper Queen'.Īge of Ambition describes some of the billion individual lives that make up China's story - one that unfolds on remote farms, in glittering mansions, and in the halls of power of the world’s largest authoritarian regime. In Age of Ambition, Osnos describes the greatest collision taking place in that country: the clash between the rise of the individual and the Communist Partys struggle to retain control. A barber who made $150 million in the gambling dens of Macau. A young army captain who risked execution to swim from free-market Taiwan to Communist China.

Age of Ambition by Evan Osnos