In just two generations, China, one of the poorest countries in the world, has skyrocketed to become the second largest economy on the planet. In a few years, it will be the first. Almost anything related to this country has something dizzying about it: its population, its economic growth, its technological advancement, as well as corruption, administrative arbitrariness, and social and economic inequalities.

However, behind the undeniable achievements and impressive news lies a society and a political system – a society that is changing rapidly and a political system that is trying at all costs to remain the same. Thus, the tremors are inevitable and, to the careful observer, noticeable.

Evan Osnos is such an observer and, moreover, he lived for eight years in Beijing. Through the stories of the defector Captain Lin, the fanatic gambler Ping, the dynamic editor-in-chief Hu Shuli, the Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, the online matchmaker Kong Hainan, the blind activist Chen, the "crazy English" of Li Yang, the famous artist Ai Weiwei, the ultra-patriot Tang Jie, the young writer and rally driver Han Han, Little Yue Yue, and many others, he manages to capture the pulse and provide a complex X-ray of Chinese everyday life, Chinese politics and social life, as well as the asymmetry between the expectations, beliefs, and material needs of the modern individual.

The Age of Ambition was honored with the National Book Award of the USA (for nonfiction), the Arthur Ross Award (bronze medal), and the book prize from The Guardian newspaper. It was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and was among the Books of the Year (2014) of The Economist magazine.