Farewell, Shanghai

by Angel Wagenstein

Book Overview

Elisabeth and Theodore Weissberg, famous musicians, Hilde, a young film extra, and Vladek, an Eastern European adventurer wanted by the police on political charges, flee Nazi Germany for Shanghai at the onset of World War II. A magnet for every human ambition and vice, Shanghai is a city of extremes-of dazzling wealth and wretched poverty, suffering and pleasure, and, for the four refugees, exile and safety. There, they enter the world of Jewish refugees,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590513088
• ISBN13: 9781590513088
• Release Date: November 2008
• Publisher: Other Press (NY)
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Historical spy novel

An historical spy novel, with an added focus on the Jewish condition in WWII in Shanghai; Jews there did not lead the sheltered life I had assumed. The writing is good, comparable to an Alan Furst novel. A more literary work might have focused more on Elizabeth Weisberg, a woman who did not have the stomach to survive the consequences of her principled choice. Was her choice wrong, and should her husband have permitted it? Hilde and Col Okura are especially interesting characters. The literary device used to open and close the book was not entirely successful. You shouldn't notice that you are reading a translation, and a number of times I did, finding awkward constructions. Also, traditional Jewish communities do allow for a non-Jew to turn on lights, etc. for them if prearranged, contrary to the novel.

Wonderful yet Saddening

I simply love this book, Angel Wagesntein, captures a long ago lost era which begs to be forgotten but must be remembered if not to learn from it. There is so much truth in this work of fiction. If not truth alone. I immensely enjoyed how the author, translators put such wonderful sentences together to describe the events in the story and place in time. It never really pulls itself in one direction that being a love story or a full account depiction and tribulations of the holocaust, although in a sense is what it is. But the story surpasses any sort of "documentary" style. This book is life-like in reality but has that sepia tone faded photo evoking story with well thought out real characters. The book is written in concise not over burdening chapters.

A marvelously written...

and translated novel of Shanghai and the Jewish colony there. The professional reviewers state very well how wonderful this novel truly is. And, evidently, it was translated from Bulgarian into French and then from French into English. This expert translation process speaks as well of the translators' skills as of the author's!