The tale of a seemingly humble farmer and his growing family, the story unfolds like a flower and takes root in your heart.

Told in the tradition of Chinese literature, Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth runs the gamut of universal themes: women's rights, the importance of family, class conflict, spiritual and moral trials, and the hardships of the modern world. It also brings into focus a theme that stretches far beyond the boundaries of Chinese society: the importance of simplicity.

In this one book, Pearl S. Buck tackled the entire cycle of life: it's terrors, passions, failures, ambitions, rewards and dreams. The tale of a seemingly humble farmer and his growing family, the story unfolds like a flower and takes root in your heart. Published in 1931 on the heels of the American Great Depression and Chinese civil war, The Good Earth was a first glimpse, for many of its readers, of an entirely new world—the poignant inner life of China and its people.