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In 1937, Shanghai is the Paris of Asia, a city of great wealth and glamour, the home of millionaires and beggars, gangsters and gamblers, patriots and revolutionaries, artists and warlords. Thanks to the financial security and material comforts provided by their father’s prosperous rickshaw business, twenty-one-year-old Pearl Chin and her younger sister, May, are having the time of their lives. Though both sisters wave off authority and tradition, they couldn’t be more different: Pearl is a Dragon sign, strong and stubborn, while May is a true Sheep, adorable and placid. Both are beautiful, modern, and carefree . . . until the day their father tells them that he has gambled away their wealth and that in order to repay his debts he must sell the girls as wives to suitors who have traveled from California to find Chinese brides.
As Japanese bombs fall on their beloved city, Pearl and May set out on the journey of a lifetime, one that will take them through the Chinese countryside, in and out of the clutch of brutal soldiers, and across the Pacific to the shores of America. In Los Angeles they begin a fresh chapter, trying to find love with the strangers they have married, brushing against the seduction of Hollywood, and striving to embrace American life even as they fight against discrimination, brave Communist witch hunts, and find themselves hemmed in by Chinatown’s old ways and rules.
At its heart, Shanghai Girls is a story of sisters: Pearl and May are inseparable best friends who share hopes, dreams, and a deep connection, but like sisters everywhere they also harbor petty jealousies and rivalries. They love each other, but each knows exactly where to drive the knife to hurt the other the most. Along the way they face terrible sacrifices, make impossible choices, and confront a devastating, life-changing secret, but through it all the two heroines of this astounding new novel hold fast to who they are: Shanghai girls.
Praise for Shanghai Girls
“A buoyant and lustrous paean to the bonds of sisterhood.”—Booklist
“A rich work . . . as compulsively readable as it is an enlightening journey.”—Denver Post
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Creators
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Series
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Publisher
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Release date
May 26, 2009 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781415958995
- File size: 388988 KB
- Duration: 13:30:23
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Janet Song's elegant and passionate narration is fitting for the story of May and Pearl, two privileged sisters growing up in Shanghai in 1937. As Pearl, the hardworking older sister, tells their tale, Song reads with a jauntiness that embraces the sisters' fun as sophisticated models in a thriving city and Pearl's ease with Chinese dialects. Song also projects the nuances of Pearl's secret resentment of her sister's beauty and her own role as caretaker. Song's tones become grave with the sisters' abrupt fall from grace, which involves bankruptcy, a hasty arranged marriage, Pearl's rape by invading Japanese soldiers, and May's out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Song captures the girls' determination as they adjust to life in Los Angeles, where they face prejudice, poverty, and secrets that threaten their close relationship. S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine -
March 23, 2009
See (Peony in Love
) explores tradition, the ravages of war and the importance of family in her excellent latest. Pearl and her younger sister, May, enjoy an upper-crust life in 1930s Shanghai, until their father reveals that his gambling habit has decimated the family's finances and to make good on his debts, he has sold both girls to a wealthy Chinese-American as wives for his sons. Pearl and May have no intention of leaving home, but after Japanese bombs and soldiers ravage their city and both their parents disappear, the sisters head for California, where their husbands-to-be live and where it soon becomes apparent that one of them is hiding a secret that will alter each of their fates. As they adjust to marriage with strangers and the challenges of living in a foreign land, Pearl and May learn that long-established customs can provide comfort in unbearable times. See's skillful plotting and richly drawn characters immediately draw in the reader, covering 20 years of love, loss, heartbreak and joy while delivering a sobering history lesson. While the ending is ambiguous, this is an accomplished and absorbing novel.
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