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by: David W. Ball  Dewey Decimal Number: 813 EAN: 9781402525698 Edition: Unabridged Format: Audiobook, Unabridged ISBN: 1402525699 Label: Recorded Books Manufacturer: Recorded Books Number Of Items: 1 Publication Date: 2003-09 Publisher: Recorded Books Studio: Recorded Books Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display Editorial Review: Amazon.com Review: When the Chinese government, citing "clerical error," demands that six American families waiting for the adoption papers they need to take their promised babies back to America surrender their precious charges, Allison Turk refuses. With her young stepson, three other adults and three infants, she defies the powerful forces arrayed against them--including her own husband--to flee halfway across China and make a run for the American consulate in Shanghai. This courageous but foolhardy attempt seems doomed to fail; escape seems impossible, especially in a country whose language, law, and customs they can't begin to comprehend. One by one, all the fugitives except Allison and her little family are picked off, captured, or killed, including their unlikely allies--a tour guide, a fisherman, a gangster, a country doctor--all of whom are as vividly rendered as China itself. Driving this riveting, compelling adventure story to its heart-stopping conclusion, Ball turns in one of the most exciting thrillers of the season! --Jane Adams Product Description: ""Allison realized she'd been awake for twenty-four hours. She hadn't done that since college. It had been the most remarkable twenty-four hours of her life -- hours in which, for better or worse, a choice had been made, a line crossed. There was no going back. Each time she thought about it, she felt the same strange shock: She was a straitlaced civil engineer from Denver, huddled in the bowels of a broken-down cargo boat on the Wan Li Chang Jiang, the Yangtze River. Hunted by police, with her stepson and a baby that wasn't legally hers. "With all that, she was not even heading toward Shanghai, toward home. "Instead, she was heading upriver, deeper into the heart of China...."" AS FRESH AS TODAY'S HEADLINES -- THE CHILLING, SUSPENSEFUL STORY OF A MOTHER, A NEWLY ADOPTED CHILD, AND A FOREIGN GOVERNMENT TRYING TO SEPARATE THEM... For Allison Turk, the journey to China to claim the daughter she is adopting had been a trying experience, a series of false starts and long waits. Forced to travel without her husband, she makes the trip with her nine-year-old stepson. She hopes it will be a bonding experience, but so far this hasn't happened. When she finally holds the little girl in her arms, however, she knows that the trip has been worth all the effort and ag gravation. In only two days, she will board a plane for home, taking with her the greatest pride and joy she has ever known. Then suddenly everything unravels. Summoned to an emergency meeting of the adoptive parents, Allison is told a mistake has been made -- a "clerical error." The Americans have been given healthy infants rather than children with special needs, for which they are technicallyqualified, and they are told they must exchange their babies for different children. Allison is faced with a terrible decision: Should she capitulate and surrender the child she has come to love intensely, or risk an attempt to reach the American consulate in Shanghai, where she might at least have a chance to negotiate and keep her baby? Joining with several other American couples caught in the same dilemma, Allison chooses to run. There is a more sinister reason underlying the nightmare than they know about, and their flight spawns a massive manhunt led by a ruthless police colonel wielding all the terrifying apparatus of a police state. What ensues is tense, dramatic, and totally believable -- a race in which Allison not only struggles with her infant daughter and recalcitrant stepson, but is caught in a political tug-of-war that forces her to display a depth of courage and a strength of will she had never known she possessed. Inspired by a true-life incident, "China Run" takes the reader on a breathtaking chase across China that is gripping, compulsively readable, and frighteningly real. Average Rating:
 Rating: - Homage to a lost ChinaDavid Ball has written some excellent historical page-turners - "Ironfire" and "Empires of Sand" are two undiscovered gems. With "China Run," Ball explores the corruption of a beautiful land and people by the Chinese government. Ball wisely uses a modern crisis - China's abandonment of children - to make his exploration of China comprehensible to Western eyes. This is a foreign culture, and Ball vividly conveys the discombobulating gaps between East and West by placing some Americans ... Read More Rating:  - Novels are filed under FICTION!Keep in mind when reading this book that it is a work of fiction. I was lucky enough to secure a copy of this book on tape. I couldn't stop listening! Always being extremely interested in anything Asian, I was thrilled with the descriptions of the villages, the fishermen, the Yangtse, the country doctor, the villages in the mountains shrouded in fog and rain and the temple. I heard so much Chinese spoken, it just rang wonderfully in my ears. The characters are believeable, you care and fall in ... Read More Rating: - Can't Put It DownI have to say I couldn't stop reading this book till I was done. I know many families with Chinese adopted children have told me it isn't really like this. They say they have a great time in China and I never heard of any complications. This book could scare people from adopting the children in China, I do believe that. I am not convinced that the fleeing scene through China happened but I think there is a lot of truth to the book. I also think it is important to remember it is a NOVEL and don't ... Read More Rating: - Read & keep in mind this is a FICTIONAL BOOKThis fictional book is suppose to be based upon elements of a true story. I too have a daughter from China which I love dearly and would move the moon and stars to keep her safe and among our family. I would hope to be every bit as strong as the fictional Mom - Allison Turk. If you are in the midst of adoption, please do not let this book stop you, it is a work of fiction and a suspenseful read at that. Another reader reviewed this book and said that the author makes those of us who adopt ... Read More Rating: - A Good Read, isn't that what fiction is really about?I have never been to China, or adopted a child. I just enjoy good fiction, written well, with a smooth rythm of story progression, and characters I love and care about. Add a thriller aspect that leaves the reader turning the pages as fast as they can, and you have a great book. I won't make this a political statement. It is just one man's version of a possibility. If anything, it will make the believers cautious, perhaps ask a few more questions, and that can't hurt. Allison Turk ... Read More 
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