Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Old Demon | 1981 | Pearl S. Buck | Buy |
| 2 | The Enemy | 1986 | Pearl S. Buck | Buy |
| 3 | The Refugees | 2018 | Pearl S. Buck | Buy |
These three shorter works — The Old Demon, The Enemy, and The Refugees — each put Pearl S. Buck’s characteristic attention to ordinary human experience under pressure into a compact form. The Old Demon, set during the Japanese invasion of China, is among her most frequently anthologized works. Its central figure, an elderly Chinese woman, makes a decision at the story’s end that is both terrible and completely understandable.
The Enemy, published in 1986, centers on a Japanese doctor who hides an American sailor during the Second World War, examining how private conscience operates against the grain of national loyalty. The brevity of the novella format suited these kinds of concentrated moral situations.