Home Beyond the Mountain

At six years old, Xiaoqing Nong lay awake in a mud house among the mountains of southern China, haunted by a question she could not escape: What happens when I die?

Her search for an answer would follow her through a childhood shaped by poverty, family devotion, political upheaval, and the quiet strength of those who raised her. Education opened the world beyond her village, but every new beginning brought its own trials. She became a teacher and a mother, endured painful separation from her son, worked in China and the United Arab Emirates, and eventually began a new life in America.

Across countries, cultures, heartbreaks, and unexpected blessings, Xiaoqing continued searching for purpose, truth, and a place to call home. The farther life carried her from the mountains of her childhood, the closer she came to understanding the question that had followed her for decades.

Honest, intimate, and deeply human, Home Beyond the Mountain is a memoir of poverty and perseverance, loss and discovery, and one woman's journey across continents toward faith, healing, and the truth that had been calling her since childhood.