* _Leaving Shenzhen_ (W. W. Norton & Company, 2021)
* _The Story of Xi (西西的故事)_ (W. W. Norton & Company, 2011)
* _When the Purple Mountain Burns_ (W. W. Norton & Company, 2005)
Short Stories
* _Eating Bitter: Journeys Across China's Great Famine_ (W. W. Norton & Company, 2019)
* _America is in the Heart_ (W. W. Norton & Company, 2005)
* _Purple is the Color of the Heart: Stories of Loss, Faith and Hope_ (Hanover Square, 2002)
* _Mothers on the Road: Chinese Adoption Stories_ (Hanover Square, 2001)
* _This Other Earth_ (W. W. Norton & Company, 1998)
Memoir
* _My China: Through the Eyes of a Chinese Born American_ (Atria Books, 2013)
Nonfiction
* _China's Great Famine: A History of the Most Devastating Famine of the Twentieth Century_ (Basic Books, 2016)