Rumors from Shanghai is a pre-war thriller that uses the snappy dialogue of the 1940s to evoke the glamour of Shanghai on the brink of World War. If you enjoyed Janice Lee's The Piano Teacher; Tan Twan Eng's The Gift of Rain and Lisa See's Shanghai Girls, you won't be able to put Rumors from Shanghai down.
It's 1940 when Tolt Gross, an African-American law graduate, arrives in booming Shanghai from provincial backwater Seattle. The roadblock of American racial prejudice has propelled him to test his talents overseas. He accepts a senior role managing the Asia operations of a US flour company, offering responsibility and status rarely available to a Black man in America. But the job comes with a humiliating precondition - he must report to a man who despises him.
And once in Shanghai? Amidst its Paris-like cosmopolitanism and intrigue akin to divided Cold War-era Berlin, Tolt manages to succeed beyond his dreams. His Chinese and Japanese friends from law school days introduce him to the delights of Shanghai's storied nightlife. Romance and foul play ensue as Tolt falls for the daughter of a Rockefeller-like Chinese family. Everything changes when our quick-thinking, fast-talking hero stumbles on a secret plan that Japan is developing to destroy the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. He grapples with the question: Should he put all he has gained at risk in order to save the country that despises him? How to give the alarm? Would anyone believe a warning from a Black man in Shanghai?
In this historical novel based on true events set in old Shanghai, Yokohama, Seattle and Honolulu, readers will find themes of perseverance through trial, friendship in the face of racism and cross-cultural romance.
Rumors from Shanghai is a pre-war thriller that uses the snappy dialogue of the 1940s to evoke the glamour of Shanghai on the brink of World War. If you enjoyed Janice Lee's The Piano Teacher; Tan Twan Eng's The Gift of Rain and Lisa See's Shanghai Girls, you won't be able to put Rumors from Shanghai down.
还没人写过短评呢