Shanghai

Multiple award-winning author Joseph Kanon dazzles with another gritty noir tale, blending historical fiction with an intriguing crime thriller. The setting is 1939 Shanghai, a tumultuous city wracked with crime, squalor, and political upheaval. Yet it is probably the only refuge for European Jews fleeing the Nazi horde.

It requires no entry visa and welcomes all comers to cope with the warring factions. The world is on the precipice of World War II—the Japanese occupy China, with a puppet government in Nanking, while Chiang Kai-shek nominally runs the government in exile. The Shanghai Municipal Police constantly war with the local crime bosses as vice and violence pervade the streets. All the while, the Communists desperately try to insinuate themselves into the political machinations. After the sudden violence and awakening call of Kristallnacht (1938), the European Jews clearly see their imminent demise.

Daniel Lohr, our main protagonist, is a journalist who has a nominal presence in a Communist cell embedded in Berlin and has recently been exposed. Being half-Jewish, he feels the noose tightening as his Jewish father is rounded up and executed at Sachsenhausen. Having a gentile mother is certainly not helpful under the Nazi race laws. He barely escapes the clutches of the Gestapo when he receives a first-class ticket aboard the Lloyd Company ocean liner headed for Shanghai, provided by his estranged Uncle Nathan. Aboard ship, he will meet others who will become intricately woven into his future dilemmas in Shanghai. He becomes embroiled in a shipboard romance with Leah Auerbach, who is traveling with her elderly mother. He’ll dine with Florence Burke, a seemingly flighty rich matron who will be instrumental in sustaining the Jewish community of Shanghai. And, most importantly, the self-important and slimy Colonel Yamada, the liaison of the Japanese Military Police, better known as the Kempeitai (the equivalent of the Nazi Gestapo). Immediate shipboard tension and gamesmanship arise with the stakes being the attention of lovely Leah. All will enter this city of squalor, glamour, and crime without a passport, ten marks, and one suitcase of clothes. How they will survive and prosper will depend on navigating many moral choices and dilemmas.

Daniel will be met warmly by his estranged uncle, who runs a casino, nightclub, and brothel. He will have his morality severely tested as he faces the reality of what must be done to survive in this tumultuous situation. To survive, his uncle is in bed with several of the most powerful crime bosses, each with varying agendas. It’s necessary to walk a tightrope to coexist with the puppet government, the local police, and now the Kempeitai, all wanting a handout, vernacularly referred to as “the squeeze.” Daniel reluctantly becomes his uncle’s valued assistant, rising in prominence and becoming known and respected amongst the various factions in the criminal underworld. He will become ensnared in the maze of politics and crime. Things are further complicated when he sees that Leah has chosen her way to survive by becoming Yamada’s mistress. Daniel cannot tolerate the smirking Yamada.

Kanon is masterful in weaving multiple plot lines, along with precise and intriguing dialogue, to ramp up the mystery and intrigue into a page-turning, exhilarating denouement. The reader will develop a distinct relationship with the motivations of these multi-layered characters. This will prove to be a foreshadowing of the events to come in this horrendous time in history. The chaos of the time is a palpable character in this riveting tale.

Thanks to NetGalley and Scribner Publishing for providing an Uncorrected Proof in exchange for an honest review. After enjoying this marvelous multidimensional tale, the reader will want to delve into Kanon’s masterful oeuvre of fiction.