Boxers and Saints Boxed Set (comics)

Gene Luen Yang is the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature.

One of the greatest comics storytellers alive brings all his formidable talents to bear in this astonishing new work.

In two volumes, "Boxers & Saints" tells two parallel stories. The first is of Little Bao, a Chinese peasant boy whose village is abused and plundered by Westerners claiming the role of missionaries. Little Bao, inspired by visions of the Chinese gods, joins a violent uprising against the Western interlopers. Against all odds, their grass-roots rebellion is successful.

But in the second volume, Yang lays out the opposite side of the conflict. A girl whose village has no place for her is taken in by Christian missionaries and finds, for the first time, a home with them. As the Boxer Rebellion gains momentum, Vibiana must decide whether to abandon her Christian friends or to commit herself fully to Christianity.

"Boxers & Saints" is one of the most ambitious graphic novels "First Second" has ever published. It offers a penetrating insight into not only one of the most controversial episodes of modern Chinese history, but into the very core of our human nature.

Gene Luen Yang is rightly called a master of the comics form, and this book will cement that reputation. This boxed set includes the trade paperback "Boxers" as well as the trade paperback "Saints", packaged together in one slipcase.

Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young Adult Literature.