Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Lake Union Publishing (2021), 429 pages
Description
1940. Aiyi Shao is a young heiress and the owner of a formerly popular and glamorous Shanghai nightclub. Ernest Reismann is a penniless Jewish refugee driven out of Germany, an outsider searching for shelter in a city wary of strangers. He loses nearly all hope until he crosses paths with Aiyi. When she hires Ernest to play piano at her club, her defiance of custom causes a sensation. His instant fame makes Aiyi's club once again the hottest spot in Shanghai. Soon they realize they share more than a passion for jazz, but their differences seem insurmountable, and Aiyi is engaged to another man. As the war escalates, Aiyi and Ernest find themselves torn apart, and their choices between love and survival grow more desperate. In the face of overwhelming odds, a chain of events is set in motion that will change both their lives forever.… (more)
Awards
National Jewish Book Award (Finalist — Book Club Award — 2021)
Language
User reviews
LibraryThing member susan0316
I read lots of World War II books but most of them are about the war in Europe and the reprehensible actions of the German troops. This book is about life in Shangri during the Japanese invasion. It gave a unique look at how badly the Japanese soldiers treated people during the occupation of China.
Aiyi is a 20 year old heiress who is fighting against the wishes of her parents and brothers by owning a jazz club in Shangri. Her family has already picked out a husband for her but she has no intention of getting married and giving up her life and her job even though it was very much against the customs in Shangri where the major goal for women was getting married and having babies. In January of 1940, her club is running out of liquor and she is losing business. She meets Ernest when he helps her escape from some thugs who wanted to punish her for her race. Ernest is a German Jew who has come to Shangri with his younger sister to avoid the persecution of Jewish people in Germany. He used the last of his money to buy tickets on the ship and is hoping that their parents will be arriving soon from Germany. As soon as he gets off the boat, he starts looking for a job because gets turned down everywhere because he's a refugee. He eventually finds work as a piano player at Aiya's club and his talent makes it one of the famous clubs in town.. When she hires him, she is defying customs - there was much prejudice between the Chinese and the white people in the city. The more time they spend together - the more their feelings for each other grow. As the war escalates, they find themselves torn apart and the decisions they need to make will affect both of them for the rest of their lives. Will their love be strong enough to help them overcome the prejudice in Shangri and the war that is becoming part of their everyday lives?
This was a beautifully written novel and it was apparent that the author did significant research. The two main characters were so well written that I felt their pain during the war and their happiness at being together. I learned a lot about the war in China and the treatment of the Chinese by the Japanese soldiers. This is a beautiful story about the pain and sorrow of the war but the overall feeling is one of love and redemption.
I RECEIVED AN ADVANCE COPY OF THIS BOOK.
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It's a dual time line book taking place in the 1940s and 1980. The timeline during the war is told by Aiyi and Ernest and the 1960s timeline is told by told by Aiyi Shao .Aiyi is a 20 year old heiress who is fighting against the wishes of her parents and brothers by owning a jazz club in Shangri. Her family has already picked out a husband for her but she has no intention of getting married and giving up her life and her job even though it was very much against the customs in Shangri where the major goal for women was getting married and having babies. In January of 1940, her club is running out of liquor and she is losing business. She meets Ernest when he helps her escape from some thugs who wanted to punish her for her race. Ernest is a German Jew who has come to Shangri with his younger sister to avoid the persecution of Jewish people in Germany. He used the last of his money to buy tickets on the ship and is hoping that their parents will be arriving soon from Germany. As soon as he gets off the boat, he starts looking for a job because gets turned down everywhere because he's a refugee. He eventually finds work as a piano player at Aiya's club and his talent makes it one of the famous clubs in town.. When she hires him, she is defying customs - there was much prejudice between the Chinese and the white people in the city. The more time they spend together - the more their feelings for each other grow. As the war escalates, they find themselves torn apart and the decisions they need to make will affect both of them for the rest of their lives. Will their love be strong enough to help them overcome the prejudice in Shangri and the war that is becoming part of their everyday lives?
This was a beautifully written novel and it was apparent that the author did significant research. The two main characters were so well written that I felt their pain during the war and their happiness at being together. I learned a lot about the war in China and the treatment of the Chinese by the Japanese soldiers. This is a beautiful story about the pain and sorrow of the war but the overall feeling is one of love and redemption.
I RECEIVED AN ADVANCE COPY OF THIS BOOK.
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LibraryThing member scottjpearson
The genre of historical fiction is as well-known for romances as it is for stories set in World War II. This book takes those simple premises but upends them by adding so much more to produce a beautiful product of art. Its setting – Shanghai, China, during the war – is unusual as are its main
About halfway through the book, I thought that this was just going to be another superficial romance. How wrong I was! In the remaining 200 pages, Randel spins yarn of so deep and lasting flavor that it reminds us of the profound power of human love despite the profound disturbances of war. Onto the canvas of war and romance, she paints integrated themes of family, of inter-cultural peace, and of undying hope. The enduring strength of love despite hardships and differences is, of course, also on display.
This book starts simply and innocently enough. In pre-war Shanghai, the Jewish refugee falls in love with a Chinese businesswoman, who is already engaged to another Chinese man. As a non-linear temporal backdrop, the Chinese businesswoman is telling this story to a film-maker in a hotel in Shanghai in 1980. But then human interactions take over and torque this tale right until the end. Whenever a new climax and denouement have been met, heightened action soon supersedes by a new sub-plot.
To be frank, this book’s unending drama left me more exhausted than a family Thanksgiving dinner gone wrong. It was simultaneously hard to put down, but thoroughly exhausting to continue. The amount of turmoil was almost incredulous even though all of the plot’s components seemed sensible enough.
This book brings the plight of the Jewish community in Shanghai to light, a historical narrative that I was not aware of. I hope this book will be translated into Chinese to reach a broader audience. This book will inspire many readers by its faith in human love despite a myriad of hardships. For some reason, novels about World War II continue to fill Western-language bookshelves, and this book will certainly add to that list.
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protagonists, a Chinese businesswoman and a Jewish refugee. Apparently, Shanghai, long-known for its prowess as an international business culture, housed many Jewish refugees who fled from German-occupied Europe. This book brings their under-reported stories to life by weaving them into this complex tale.About halfway through the book, I thought that this was just going to be another superficial romance. How wrong I was! In the remaining 200 pages, Randel spins yarn of so deep and lasting flavor that it reminds us of the profound power of human love despite the profound disturbances of war. Onto the canvas of war and romance, she paints integrated themes of family, of inter-cultural peace, and of undying hope. The enduring strength of love despite hardships and differences is, of course, also on display.
This book starts simply and innocently enough. In pre-war Shanghai, the Jewish refugee falls in love with a Chinese businesswoman, who is already engaged to another Chinese man. As a non-linear temporal backdrop, the Chinese businesswoman is telling this story to a film-maker in a hotel in Shanghai in 1980. But then human interactions take over and torque this tale right until the end. Whenever a new climax and denouement have been met, heightened action soon supersedes by a new sub-plot.
To be frank, this book’s unending drama left me more exhausted than a family Thanksgiving dinner gone wrong. It was simultaneously hard to put down, but thoroughly exhausting to continue. The amount of turmoil was almost incredulous even though all of the plot’s components seemed sensible enough.
This book brings the plight of the Jewish community in Shanghai to light, a historical narrative that I was not aware of. I hope this book will be translated into Chinese to reach a broader audience. This book will inspire many readers by its faith in human love despite a myriad of hardships. For some reason, novels about World War II continue to fill Western-language bookshelves, and this book will certainly add to that list.
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LibraryThing member clue
In this novel a woman in her sixties sitting in a wheelchair in a luxury hotel tells her story. It begins when she inherited a popular Shanghai nightclub from her wealthy father in the late 1930s. She tells what that did to family and personal relationships. How she fell in love with a Jewish
She answers our questions about what happened after the war too. She tells what happaned to the cousin to whom she was bethrothed as a child. She lets us know how her love story with the Jewish refugee played out. She mentions being a billionaire now although during the war she lost everything.
I hadn't heard of this book, published in 2021, until Tess reviewed it. Amazon shows 27,336 ratings with 53% being 5 stars. I rated it lower because even though I could belive all of the above(!) I thought the last few chapters were rushed, a bit tangled and the end unbelievable. Still, I throughly enjoyed reading it.
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refugee she hired as a piano player and how dangerous such a thing was during the war. What it was like to live in Shanghai after it took in 20,000 Jewish refugees, and what is was like when the Japanese occupied it. And she tells about those that helped her and those that hurt her through the war.She answers our questions about what happened after the war too. She tells what happaned to the cousin to whom she was bethrothed as a child. She lets us know how her love story with the Jewish refugee played out. She mentions being a billionaire now although during the war she lost everything.
I hadn't heard of this book, published in 2021, until Tess reviewed it. Amazon shows 27,336 ratings with 53% being 5 stars. I rated it lower because even though I could belive all of the above(!) I thought the last few chapters were rushed, a bit tangled and the end unbelievable. Still, I throughly enjoyed reading it.
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LibraryThing member krau0098
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got a copy of this book through Amazon First Reads.
Thoughts: I enjoyed the unique setting for this book but thought the writing was a bit awkward and the story was just so-so. This book takes place during WWII in Shanghai. It follows a young heiress
Both Ernest and Aiyi aren't all that likable. Ernest is strangely selfish and doesn't really take his sister's needs into account. Aiyi wants to be successful and is selfish as well. To be fair, to survive in this time it seems like you had to be selfish. I did like that Aiyi was a business owner and tried to stand up for herself as a woman, but she also let a lot of the men in her life force her into bad situations. I didn't really like either of them and felt like their romance was quick and forced. I don't think it helped that the dialogue throughout felt stilted and awkward to me.
The story starts in the present and then goes back to the past and then ends in the present. It ends up tying together decently but I found parts, especially in the second half, to be a bit boring and hard to stay engaged in. This feels odd for me to say with all the death and torture going in the background, but we spent a lot of the book just kind of waiting and I struggled to stay interested.
I did greatly enjoy the unique historical setting and learning about the events in Shanghai in WWII. I knew that the Japanese had invaded Shanghai but wasn't aware of all the other international pressures in Shanghai at the time. I also had not realized that Shanghai was such a huge refuge for Jews fleeing Europe. I really enjoyed getting a look into the effects of WWII on a region of the world that you don't often get to read about during that time frame.
My Summary (3/5): Overall this was okay; I really liked learning about Shanghai and the events that took place there during WWII. I didn't enjoy the awkward writing and dialogue, the unlikable characters, and the winding somewhat pointless plot. While I am happy to have learned more about Shanghai in this historical time, I don't plan on picking up anymore books by this author.
Thoughts: I enjoyed the unique setting for this book but thought the writing was a bit awkward and the story was just so-so. This book takes place during WWII in Shanghai. It follows a young heiress
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named Aiyi who owns her own nightclub and a Jewish refugee named Ernest who ends up playing the piano at her club. They end up falling in love but get caught up in all the politics and war of the time.Both Ernest and Aiyi aren't all that likable. Ernest is strangely selfish and doesn't really take his sister's needs into account. Aiyi wants to be successful and is selfish as well. To be fair, to survive in this time it seems like you had to be selfish. I did like that Aiyi was a business owner and tried to stand up for herself as a woman, but she also let a lot of the men in her life force her into bad situations. I didn't really like either of them and felt like their romance was quick and forced. I don't think it helped that the dialogue throughout felt stilted and awkward to me.
The story starts in the present and then goes back to the past and then ends in the present. It ends up tying together decently but I found parts, especially in the second half, to be a bit boring and hard to stay engaged in. This feels odd for me to say with all the death and torture going in the background, but we spent a lot of the book just kind of waiting and I struggled to stay interested.
I did greatly enjoy the unique historical setting and learning about the events in Shanghai in WWII. I knew that the Japanese had invaded Shanghai but wasn't aware of all the other international pressures in Shanghai at the time. I also had not realized that Shanghai was such a huge refuge for Jews fleeing Europe. I really enjoyed getting a look into the effects of WWII on a region of the world that you don't often get to read about during that time frame.
My Summary (3/5): Overall this was okay; I really liked learning about Shanghai and the events that took place there during WWII. I didn't enjoy the awkward writing and dialogue, the unlikable characters, and the winding somewhat pointless plot. While I am happy to have learned more about Shanghai in this historical time, I don't plan on picking up anymore books by this author.
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ISBN
1542032873 / 9781542032872