#ReadAroundTheWorld. #China

This is an historical fiction set in Shanghai in 1940, by Chinese author Weina Dai Randel, who moved to the US in her early twenties.

Aiyi Shao, the daughter of a wealthy Chinese family, owns and runs a nightclub in Shanghai. Under Japanese occupation, things become increasingly difficult and dangerous. When Aiyi hires jazz pianist Ernest Reismann, a Jewish refugee from Germany, she goes against family and tradition. Reismann’s jazz piano however, brings great popularity to her club and Aiyi finds herself attracted to both his persona and music.

The story does become somewhat dramatic in the second half with some improbable events. Aiyi is a strong woman, but her selfish focus on money and business does make you want to shake her at times. There is a second framing story set in 1980 when Aiyi tells her story to a documentarian, with some more improbable events. I can’t help but think that it would make a great movie though.

I enjoyed the insights given into Shanghai during the Japanese occupation, and the fear and uncertainty of these times. I learnt that Shanghai was initially a refuge for Jews during WW2 with around 20,000 settling there from 1938 to 1941. Later in the war, after increasing pressure from the Nazis, the Japanese rounded up the 15,000 Jews left in Shanghai, and placed them in a ghetto in Tilanqiao. This was a pleasant enough read and I’m happy to have read it. 3.5 stars ( )

I have to come clean and say this is not a book I would have ordinarily read, but the time period it was set in had me curious and the setting was one I'd never considered reading about in that era.The writing was concise and the characters well built; some of the scenes described written so well it made my stomach lurch.

If you are interested in WWII I recommend this book as a different perspective on that time. ( )

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 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. ( )

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 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. ( )

I loved this star crossed lovers historical romance. everything from the characters to the environment seemed very authentic and well thought out. the only reason I scored it 4 stars was because the storyline seemed very rushed in the end, other than that a very entertaining read. ( )