Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite Historical Fiction (2025), Nominee for Readers' Favorite Debut Novel (2025)
Genre: historical fiction, literary fiction
I enjoyed learning about the international city of Shanghai during the 1930s and after, with its European concessions in the city, the subsequent Japanese occupation, the flight of the city inhabitants, and the events in Shanghai and China after Japan's surrender at the end of WWII.
So much of history is covered during the telling of this story. I found the book to be a perfect vehicle to reveal the events in China around that time.
The main characters, Suchi and Haiwen, grow up together in the International Settlement in Shanghai. After the Japanese leave, China is still war torn, with the Nationalists fighting against the Communists for control of the country. The Nationalists eventually flee with their leader, Chiang Kai Shek, to the island of Taiwan. Haiwen has to leave Suchi and his family after joining the Nationalist army and departing for Taiwan.
Suchi spends uncertain years in Hong Kong before emigrating to the U.S., where she meets Haiwen again by chance, after sixty or more years apart. Suchi is a grandmother by then, and Haiwen a widower. They find each other in Los Angeles and make an effort to revisit Shanghai and their ailing mothers, bringing the circle of their lives to a close.
A very moving story, and an important one for another perspective and view of Shanghai and China during the war, and about two people finding a home in the U.S. after a long and harrowing life of war and displacement.
Posted for the 2026 Immigration Reading Challenge,
Currently reading The Unwilling Plus One: A Dark RomCom, by Effie Campbell. Published Feb. 1, 2026; BooksGoSocial, NetGalley
Genre: historical fiction, literary fiction
I enjoyed learning about the international city of Shanghai during the 1930s and after, with its European concessions in the city, the subsequent Japanese occupation, the flight of the city inhabitants, and the events in Shanghai and China after Japan's surrender at the end of WWII.
So much of history is covered during the telling of this story. I found the book to be a perfect vehicle to reveal the events in China around that time.
The main characters, Suchi and Haiwen, grow up together in the International Settlement in Shanghai. After the Japanese leave, China is still war torn, with the Nationalists fighting against the Communists for control of the country. The Nationalists eventually flee with their leader, Chiang Kai Shek, to the island of Taiwan. Haiwen has to leave Suchi and his family after joining the Nationalist army and departing for Taiwan.
Suchi spends uncertain years in Hong Kong before emigrating to the U.S., where she meets Haiwen again by chance, after sixty or more years apart. Suchi is a grandmother by then, and Haiwen a widower. They find each other in Los Angeles and make an effort to revisit Shanghai and their ailing mothers, bringing the circle of their lives to a close.
A very moving story, and an important one for another perspective and view of Shanghai and China during the war, and about two people finding a home in the U.S. after a long and harrowing life of war and displacement.
Posted for the 2026 Immigration Reading Challenge,
And now for a Rom Com
The older daughter in a family of hired assassins finds herself unable to take part in their crimes. She will, however, kidnap a handsome neighbor in order to make him her Plus One at a family dinner and to prevent her father from announcing her engagement to one of his murderous cohorts.
I wonder how she will persuade her unwilling Plus One to become a real romantic partner!
What are you reading this week?
