Book description
Two sisters, a world at war and one life-changing secret Shanghai,
1937. Pearl and May are two sisters from a bourgeois family. Though
their personalities are very different Pearl is a Dragon sign, strong
and stubborn, while May is a true Sheep, adorable and placid they are
inseparable best friends. Both are beautiful, modern and living a
carefree life ... until the day their father tells them that he has
gambled away the family s wealth, and that in order to repay his debts
he must sell the girls as wives to two Gold Mountain men: Americans. As
Japanese bombs fall on their beloved city, the two sisters set out on
the journey of a lifetime, one that will take them through the villages
of southern China, in and out of the clutches of brutal soldiers, and
even across the ocean, through the humiliation of an anti-Chinese
detention centre to a new, married life in Los Angeles s Chinatown. Here
they begin a fresh chapter, despite the racial discrimination and
anti-Communist paranoia, because now they have something to strive for:
a young, American-born daughter, Joy. Along the way there are terrible
sacrifices, impossible choices and one devastating, life-changing
secret, but through it all the two heroines of this astounding new novel
by Lisa See hold fast to who they are Shanghai girls. Two sisters, a
world at war and one life-changing secret Shanghai, 1937. Pearl and May
are two sisters from a bourgeois family. Though their personalities are
very different Pearl is a Dragon sign, strong and stubborn, while May is
a true Sheep, adorable and placid they are inseparable best friends.
Both are beautiful, modern and living a carefree life ... until the day
their father tells them that he has gambled away the family s wealth,
and that in order to repay his debts he must sell the girls as wives to
two Gold Mountain men: Americans. As Japanese bombs fall on their
beloved city, the two sisters set out on the journey of a lifetime, one
that will take them through the villages of southern China, in and out
of the clutches of brutal soldiers, and even across the ocean, through
the humiliation of an anti-Chinese detention centre to a new, married
life in Los Angeles s Chinatown. Here they begin a fresh chapter,
despite the racial discrimination and anti-Communist paranoia, because
now they have something to strive for: a young, American-born daughter,
Joy. Along the way there are terrible sacrifices, impossible choices and
one devastating, life-changing secret, but through it all the two
heroines of this astounding new novel by Lisa See hold fast to who they
are Shanghai girls.
