About the Book

Beijing, March 2012: The capital awakens to toxic yellow skies as environmental protesters flood Tiananmen Square during the National People’s Congress. What begins as peaceful demonstration for clean air and reform spirals into chaos that will shake China to its core.

Leon Berger weaves together seven perspectives—a freelance interpreter, an American CEO, a young journalist, a migrant bank teller, and others—all caught in a violent power struggle that erupts without warning. As the situation escalates, ordinary people face impossible choices between survival and standing up for what they believe in.

Drawing from years living in Beijing, Berger crafts an unnervingly prescient thriller that anticipated today’s Hong Kong protests and environmental activism. The novel explores how fragile hope can be, how power maintains itself through fear, and what happens to those who dare to challenge the system. Death by Harmony stands as essential reading for understanding modern China—a nation where economic prosperity masks environmental catastrophe and stability demands silence.