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“In Another World” (1936) is an intimate biography written by Pearl S. Buck about her mother, Caroline “Carie” Stulting Sydenstricker. The book follows the life of this strong but deeply unhappy American woman: from her childhood in West Virginia, through her marriage to the strict Presbyterian missionary Absalom Sydenstricker, to her departure for the interior of China in the late 19th century. Carie came to China full of ideals and faith, but there she found a harsh reality – isolation, disease, hunger, Chinese rebellions and constant danger.

Particularly poignant is the part about the loss of three children at an early age, which deeply broke her and led to a gradual disillusionment with the missionary vocation and her husband’s strict faith. Pearl Buck masterfully depicts the mother’s inner struggle – a woman who spent her entire life “in another world”, alienated from both America and China, and from the patriarchal God who had taken so much from her.

Unlike most of Bucka's novels, this is an autobiographical work (albeit written in the third person), full of emotion, love and a quiet critique of missionary life and his father's fanatical dedication to "The Work". The book is a kind of complement to her other work Fighting Angel, in which she describes her father.

The style is warm, nostalgic and extremely humane – typical of Pearl S. Buck. The work is emotional, sometimes painfully honest, and represents one of her most personal and moving works.