Remembering Shanghai: A Memoir of Socialites, Scholars and Scoundrels
Description:
WINNER - 2019 Rubery Book Award BOOK OF THE YEAR and 16 other literary awards... An Engaging and Extraordinary Multigenerational Saga
A high position bestowed by China's empress dowager grants power and wealth to the Sun family. For Isabel, growing up in glamorous 1930s and '40s Shanghai, it is a life of utmost privilege. But while her scholar father and fashionable mother shelter her from civil war and Japanese occupation, they cannot shield the family forever.
When Mao comes to power, eighteen-year-old Isabel journeys to Hong Kong, not realizing that she will make it her home--and that she will never see her father again. Meanwhile, the family she has left behind struggles to survive, only to have their world shattered by the Cultural Revolution. Isabel returns to Shanghai fifty years later with her daughter, Claire, to confront their family's past--one they discover is filled with love and betrayal, kidnappers and concubines, glittering pleasure palaces and underworld crime bosses.
Lavishly illustrated and meticulously researched, Remembering Shanghai follows five generations from a hardscrabble village to vibrant Shanghai to the bright lights of Hong Kong. By turns harrowing and heartwarming, this vivid memoir explores identity, loss and the unpredictable nature of life against the epic backdrop of a nation and a people in turmoil.
Winner of 17 book awards including:
- Rubery Book Award BOOK OF THE YEAR, NON-FICTION
- Independent Author Network OUTSTANDING MEMOIR, BOOK OF THE YEAR 2nd place
- Reader Views Literary Awards MEMOIR, GLOBAL AWARD
- IPPY Independent Publisher Book Awards BEST FIRST BOOK, BEST E-BOOK DESIGN, COVER DESIGN 2nd place
- Readers' Favorite NON FICTION HISTORICAL, 2nd place
- Eric Hoffer GRAND PRIZE Finalist, FIRST HORIZON AWARD Finalist, CULTURE 2nd place
- Next Generation Indie Awards HISTORICAL NON-FICTION Finalist, MEMOIRS Finalist, BEST COVER DESIGN NON-FICTION Finalist
- National Indie Excellence Awards BOOK COVER DESIGN NON-FICTION Finalist
"An engaging and entertaining saga." South China Morning Post
"A volume that demands to be held." Los Angeles Review of Books
"A feast of winning elements ... absolutely fascinating." Bookish Asia
"The perfect combination of historical fiction, memoir and novel." Reader Views
"Jaw-dropping, exciting, touching, tragic and insightful." Historic Shanghai
"A book I truly could not put down." Fête Chinoise
"Absolutely gorgeous--a visual delight." Asia Literary Review
"A beguiling memoir of Shanghai." Hong Kong Review of Books
"Unique ... vivid descriptions transport readers." China Press
"Pulls back the curtain on how people lived." Shanghai Daily
"Makes Chinese traditions easily accessible." Honolulu Star-Advertiser
"Sparkling prose and enthralling stories catapult you into the inner life and doings of Shanghai's cultured classes." Helen Zia, Last Boat Out of Shanghai
"This elegant family memoir transforms, transfixes, and educates." Pamela Sakamoto, Midnight in Broad Daylight
"Mesmerizing stories; magnificent language." Betty Peh-T'i Wei, PhD, Old Shanghai
Order your copy of Remembering Shanghai today in hardcover, paperback or Kindle. At over 300 pages with dozens of photographs and illustrations, this beautiful memoir is a joy to hold and read.
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