Will Kiehn seems destined for life as a humble farmer in the Midwest when, having felt a call from God, he travels to the vast North China Plain in the early 20th century. There he is surprised by love and weds a strong and determined fellow missionary, Katherine. They soon find themselves witnesses to the crumbling of a more than two-thousand-year-old dynasty that plunges the country into decades of civil war. As the couple works to improve the lives of the people of Kuang P'ing Ch'eng - the City of Tranquil Light - they face incredible hardship.
Told through Will and Katherine's alternating viewpoints, and inspired by the lives of the author's maternal grandparents, City of Tranquil Light is a tender portrait of a young marriage set against the backdrop of the shifting face of a beautiful but torn nation. A deeply spiritual book, it shows how those who work to teach others often have the most to learn.
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