Ha Jin

Ha Jin is a Chinese-American author who is one of the most acclaimed and important literary voices writing about the Chinese and Chinese-American experience. Born in 1956 in Liaoning, China, he served in the People's Liberation Army before emigrating to the United States, where he chose to write exclusively in English. A Map of Betrayal is a novel that spans decades and continents, telling the story of a Chinese spy embedded in the CIA and the family he leaves behind, exploring themes of loyalty, identity, sacrifice and the human cost of espionage. Ha Jin has won the National Book Award for Waiting and the PEN/Faulkner Award twice, for Waiting and War Trash. His writing is characterised by its elegant prose, its moral seriousness and its deep engagement with the complexities of life between Chinese and American cultures. His audiobooks and books are essential reading in contemporary American and world literature.