“The Pekingese Exodus”

The Pekingese Exodus is a historical comedy-adventure novel of 24,500 words, based on the unbelievable true story of five imperial dogs smuggled out of China. It’s a hilarious and heartfelt survival story with the pacing of a heist, where the ultimate prize is keeping five stubborn, sacred, and supremely entitled Pekingese alive on a five-month voyage from a burning palace to the Queen of England’s lap.

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October 1860. As British forces loot Beijing’s Summer Palace, three conflicted officers—ambitious Captain Alistair Finch, aesthetic Lord Bertram Hay, and cynical Surgeon-Major Pettigrew—stumble upon a scene of sacred silence: a deceased imperial princess and her five sacred Pekingese standing vigil. In a moment of unexpected conscience, they choose rescue over plunder.

Finch’s duty becomes terrifyingly personal when a general declares the snow-white dog, Meizhu, “fit for a queen,” tying his career and his hopes of marrying Lady Nell to the survival of a creature that views him with imperial disappointment.

Their journey home aboard HMS Perseverance descends into chaos. The dogs—an immovable empress, a thieving acrobat, a gourmand on hunger strike, a “helpful” saboteur, and a furious sentinel—wreak havoc. Finch battles storms and a furious captain; Hay risks everything when his acrobat vanishes in Cape Town; Pettigrew wages a medical war to save a dying dog. Each man must confront his role as both savior and conqueror.

Can they keep these living treasures alive?

More importantly, can they earn the right to be their guardians?

All culminates in a final, tense audience with the grieving Queen Victoria, where the fate of the dogs, the men’s futures, and a fragile piece of a lost world hang on a single, perfect bow.

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“The Pekingese Exodus” probes the deep, uncomfortable tension between imperial conquest and cultural preservation, asking if honor can be salvaged from ruin. Its unique power lies in using genuine comedy to explore profound guilt and redemption, with the five dogs serving as catalysts for human transformation. Told through a narrative of escalating chaos, it offers rich emotional resonance for readers of historical and animal-centric fiction. It is a story about the unbreakable bonds forged in displacement, proving that the smallest survivors can carry the greatest weight of history and heal the hearts of those who save them.

Read Online:

• Free Sample

• The Pekingese Exodus. Part 1

• The Pekingese Exodus. Part 2.