Complex, intriguing!
Shanghai: A Novel by Joseph Kanon
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Wonderful expose of Jews trying to leave Europe prior to Hitler taking complete control. Shanghai is the only port not requiring entry visas.
Daniel Lohr, a Jew, leaves Germany bound for Shanghai, to join his uncle. Uncle Nathan has been running a nightclub with a sideline in gambling. The relationship between Daniel’s father Eli and his brother Nathan is intriguing. We are given fascinating snippets of their lives, pictures from which we must deduce what’s happening.
That’s the tone of this biting thriller. Bits and pieces are leaked to us. We infer much. Like real life we don’t see all the factors at first glance.
Daniel had been an unregistered member of the communist party. His cell had been compromised, fortunately he wasn’t. He barely escapes Germany.
On the ship he meets a cross section of people he’ll run into again in Shanghai. Leah whom he has a voyage only relationship with, Florence a member of the Jewish community in Shanghai and a compatriot of Madame Chiang, and Colonel Yamada, the head of the Kempeitai, the Japanese military police, a Gestapo like organization.
Uncle Nathan is opening a new casino with the two main gang leaders in Shanghai. Daniel takes up the mantle of beloved nephew, as close as a son. He becomes his uncle’s trusted right hand.
Yet the past flows through Shanghai, danger is ever present and Daniel knows to show an unconcerned face, even as the communists want to use him, the triads kill him, and Colonel Yamada destroy him.
As Daniel peels away one face of Shanghai he’s greeted by another.
Best to leave, but when?
The ending is either filled with hope or despair. I cannot tell. It actually doesn’t matter. Shades of greys like Casablanca. The story unfolds “through a glass darkly” and I was caught up in that whirlwind half light.
A gritty tragic novel, a different aspect of people escaping Germany, bound for an alternative to the US—Shanghai, where the Japanese are playing a waiting game. The type of tale Kanon excels in.
A Scribner ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher.
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