The King of Ningxia is a taught, fraught, cold romance between an American man and a Chinese woman whose fates reverse after Asia’s great economic rise. Toward the end of a two-year romance in 1984, a young Chinese poet asks the visiting American to stay.

With respect and affection, he says no and returns home. Decades later, he is broke.

She is rich. They reunite in New York, and he asks for money.

She says yes. Her reasons are emotional, financial, and geo-political.

Together they form an ill-defined partnership that redeems them both and impacts large events both East and West, all the while being shadowed by wistful memories of what might have been, and what still could be. In this work of literary fiction, readers will:Learn how a political outcast achieves great wealth.

Observe how power in China is more important than money. Follow an American nobody as he influences China’s ruling Central Committee.

See the lingering, lasting effects of interrupted love. Like their perspective countries, the two main characters in this novel relate, don’t relate, come together, fall apart, succeed, fail, help each other, hurt each other, and ultimately, probably, decide that it’s best for both to stay close, trusting each other and staying in each other’s debt.

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