Ha Jin (born 1956) is a China-born novelist who writes in English. His fiction portrays lives shaped by Chinese politics and society, as well as the experiences of immigrants in the United States. “Waiting” (『待ち暮らし』), about an army doctor caught between his marriage and another relationship, won the 1999 National Book Award and the 2000 PEN/Faulkner Award. In “A Free Life” (『自由生活』), he follows a Chinese family building a new life in America.
