Echoes from Wuhan tells the dramatic, fast-paced story of a naïve and adventuresome young American woman and how she navigated-well and not so well—the complexities of cross-cultural confusions and clashes in China long ago. A prisoner of privilege and watched by Party officials, Gretchen Dykstra stayed in Wuhan for two years and returned to a career in the civic affairs of New York City. She maintained enduring friendships with some of her students and, through those bonds, reveals aspects of an ancient culture that shaped modern China.

Gretchen Dykstra, a writer-in-residence at the New York Public Library, is author of Civic Pioneers: Local Stories of a Changing America, 1895-2015 (WiseInk, 2019) and Pinery Boys (University of Wisconsin Press, 2017) and numerous articles in the New York Times, NY Daily News, California History and Pennsylvania Heritage.