The time is World War II; the place, a brutal prison camp deep in Japanese-occupied territory. Here within the seething mass of humanity, one man, an American corporal, seeks dominance over both captives and captors alike-and he will use any means necessary.

Tehran, Iran 1979: Simmering religious tensions explode and the Shah is forced to flee Iran. A British helicopter company-secretly owned by the Noble House of Hong Kong-with a fleet of helicopters registered in Iran faces bankruptcy if their copters are claimed or destroyed by the uprising. The pilots need to escape, but they've built lives in Iran, some even have families. Finnish pilot Erikki Yokkonen has married Azadeh, an Iranian woman of noble...

“Clavell’s biggest triumph yet . . . storytelling done with dash and panache . . . a rousing read.”—Washington Post

The setting is Hong Kong, 1963. The action spans scarcely more than a week, but these are days of high adventure: from kidnapping and murder to financial double-dealing and natural catastrophes—fire, flood, landslide. Yet they are days filled as well with all the mystery and romance...

"There can only be one Tai-Pan." Dirk Struan rose from humble beginnings to build Struan & Company, also known as the Noble House, into the world's largest Far East trading company. He is now the Tai-Pan-Supreme Leader-of all Tai-Pans in China. Along the way, however, he made a powerful enemy. Tyler Brock, Struan's rival from their early opium-smuggling days, also heads a large trading fleet, second in size only to Struan's. But it is not only silks...