Goodreads Giveaway - Signed advance copy of new novel endorsed by Mo Yan & Yu Hua

[jthornton1991]

Hey everyone!

 

My name is JR Thornton, I'm an author and for the next 24 hours I'm running a giveaway on Goodreads for a special advance copy of my upcoming novel Beautiful Country (to be released in April, 2016). 

 

The novel was loosely inspired by experiences I had living in Beijing as a teenager when I spent a year training with the Beijing junior national tennis team, and tells the story of a superbly talented Chinese tennis player and his efforts to chase after his dreams of becoming a top ranked professional player. (I've included a full description below).

 

I decided to post a link to the giveaway on here as I'm hoping that my novel might sound interesting to some of you. If any of you decide to check it out and have any questions, or things you would like to talk about with me just shoot me a message. I love getting feedback from readers, and am always curious to hear what people think about my writing.

 

 

Thanks for taking the time to read this!

 

- JR

 

 

Beautiful Country

 

A coming-of-age story set in modern day China centering on the friendship between an American and a Chinese boy who meet while training with Beijing’s Junior National Tennis Team.

Chase Robertson arrives in Beijing as a fourteen-year-old boy still troubled by the recent death of his older brother. He discovers a country in transition; a society in which the dual systems of Communist Era state control and an emerging entrepreneurial culture exist in paradox.

A top ranked junior tennis player in the U.S., Chase joins the practices of the Beijing National Junior Tennis Team and is immersed in the brutal, cut-throat world of Chinese sport. It is a world in which gifted children are selected at the ages of six or seven for specialized sport schools where they devote their entire youth to the pursuit of athletic excellence and are paid as professionals by the state. Athletes find themselves compelled to do anything possible to succeed—right or wrong. Those who fail to reach the pinnacle are cast aside and are left facing a desperate future without hope.

In China, Chase gains access to a culture rarely open to Westerners, and soon finds himself caught up in secrets. When his closest friend and teammate turns to him for help, Chase is faced with the dilemma of what to do when friendship, rules, and morals are in conflict.

A big-hearted debut, Beautiful Country explores a friendship against the backdrop of a quickly changing country.

[qc418]

Definitely going to check this out! Thanks for posting.