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 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.
The Last Rose of Shanghai: A Novel
By Weina Dai Randel
Copyright (c) 2021
Lake Union Publishing
ISBN13 9781542032872
Page Count: 417
Genre: Historical Fiction
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