As a person deeply entrenched in my own Jewish identity, Holocaust books can feel particularly exhausting, especially if they parrot the same storyline over and over. This book told a different-but-true perspective of Jew who fled to China, and I was hooked through most of it.

An interesting and unique read. Recommending this book is easy - especially if readers have an interest in WWII or the Holocaust.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Fascinating book with different take on WWII and the escape routes that some Jewish families took to save themselves and their families.

A story of a friendship that lasted through heartache and war. Told in two different time periods, this novel depicts another aspect of the Jewish people during WWII. Romy and her family is forced to leave Austria and flee to Shanghai. She becomes friends with Li, a beautiful and talented Chinese girl. Alexandra goes home to be with her dying grandfather and seeks information about her heritage. Lots of history, heartbreaking situations and secrets in this moving story. Recommended!

Most World War II era books, particularly those which focus on Jewish refugees, are set in Europe. Instead, the Song of the Jade Lily focuses on Jewish refugees who settled in China. The change of setting isn't the only item that sets this historical book with a mystery apart.

Australian author Kirsty Manning' has turned the genre of World War II fiction on its head with her book The Song of the Jade Lily which tells the little known story of Jewish refugees who settled in China. They lived and worked right along with individuals of many nationalities in Shanghai. Manning weave a wonderful, layered story which uses time-shift to alternate between the main character who is now an elderly woman in Australia and her grand-daughter who is exploring her adopted heritage while living in Shanghai and the World War II story of the main character and her friends and family. This technique masterfully unfolds the story little by little until everything falls into place. To have not only people but the setting shift back and forth between the time periods provides another avenue to share clues which help the reader solve the unfolding mystery. While the clues of what happened to the main characters are unveiled, the reader is swept into the horrors of World War II China particularly under Japanese occupation. Manning vividly portrays the horrors both Jewish refugees and Chinese citizens experienced. Highly recommended!

The Song of the Jade Lily by Kirsty Manning is fictional story but it gave me insight into another piece of history, Many books have recently been written about this time period in history. Richly layered story.

Brought to you by OBS Reviewer Jeanie

This is an incredibly powerful novel, a riveting read with stunning plot twists. The characters are likable, their friendship and loyalty fierce, and the story a testament of survival of a tumultuous time of world history. I learned more about WWII, specifically the part Shanghai, and later Melbourne, played a critical role to Jewish refugees. European history during these years is critical for us to know so that another Holocaust does not occur. Ever. Some scenes might be a little challenging for some readers who are sensitive to violence but are not contrived or prolonged.

Romy Bernfeld was twelve when Kristallnacht occurred in Vienna. She and her parents witnessed the murder of one of her brothers, Benjamin, who tried to help their music teacher up from being attacked by a former friend/ now soldier, while her other brother, Daniel is taken away. This devastation haunted their family throughout the rest of their lives.

With assistance from a neighbor who helped many Jews escape, the Bernfeld’s went to Shanghai. They had one benefit that most who left Europe did not, a grateful benefactor. Romy’s father, a doctor, saved the life of the cousin of a wealthy man who owned an upscale hotel in Shanghai. The man gave them a room at the hotel for their first month in China. He arranged for Papa to be hired at the Jewish Hospital, then helped them find an apartment in the French Concession of Shanghai.

Romy met her lifelong friend, Nina, whose mother died giving birth to a stillborn girl on the ship to Shanghai. Upon arrival, Nina had to stay at a women’s facility, as her uncle, already living there in the men’s facility, was unable to afford a place for the two of them. Thankfully, Papa was able to arrange with Eva Schwartz, of the International Committee overseeing Nina’s stay, for Nina to visit Romy. Papa also secured meds, some on the black market, for use at the hospital and for those assisted by Eva.

At their new apartment, Romy met their neighbors: her new friend Li, Li’s brother Jian, and their parents, Dr. Ho and Wilma. Dr. Ho is a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, and owns the shop where their amah, Mei, gets the herbs to help heal Romy’s mother from the shock and grief of losing her sons. When Romy’s mother begins to recover, she and Wilma were good friends. Li and Romy had an unbreakable bond. Li’s dream was to use her incredible songbird voice to entertain. Jian was an artist both with sketching and photography; he also wrote down the recipes for decoctions made for her mother. Romy also met Wilhelm, who had a bakery there. She fell completely, totally in love with him, the kind of love that nothing would change. They later married in Melbourne, Australia, after the war.

Alexandra, the beloved granddaughter Romy and Wilhelm raised after the death of her parents, is a top-dollar commodities trader in London. She returned to Melbourne for several weeks when Wilhelm’s was dying. Alexandra wants to learn more about Sophia, her mother, adopted when her grandparents were still in Shanghai. Her parents were brilliant mathematicians, as she is, and she begins to question now she is using her talents only to make money for herself and others. She also has a diary her mother used, with only a couple entries in it, but no birth certificate. This information only raises more questions, as it seems Sophia had her own questions about her background. Alexandra has an imminent transfer to the Shanghai office of her company where she will go when returning to work. She plans to do whatever possible while there to find out about her mother’s family; Romy is now her only known relative.

Romy and Alexandra are so well defined that I felt as if I knew them personally by the end of the novel. The characters are phenomenal, each in their own way, as they adapted to and survived the worst offered by WWII. Romy is by far my favorite, with Alexandra and Nina taking a close second. Li and Jian’s stories are critical, also, as they do what is necessary to protect each other, and their friends.

One thing I learned is how the Bernfeld’s and many others were allowed to communicate with Daniel at Dachau, once he was located. He also wrote to them as allowed. Throughout the war they work to get passage and paperwork for him to go to Shanghai. While the back-and-forth of the story between Shanghai and Melbourne, past and present, was a bit challenging at first, it made sense as I continued reading. This is Romy’s story through and through, but Alexandra also has a major part in it. Watching her change with regards to her career, and through meeting and spending time with Jhang, was kind of like watching a butterfly emerge from a cocoon. She and Romy are indeed the beautiful butterflies who survived the harsh winds of a long winter in their battered cocoons to flourish and thrive in unexpected places and circumstances. I highly recommend it to those who appreciate well-written World War II women’s fiction with strong characters amidst the worst of trying circumstances. This is the author’s first novel released in the US and the birth of a new best seller.

*OBS would like to thank the publisher for supplying a free copy of this title in exchange for an honest review*

Favorite Quotes:

Alexandra spent most of her time with men on the trading desks, who walked around the office with their jaws clenched, veins pulsing at their temples. They smelled of adrenaline, expensive aftershave, and fear.

Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart.

My Review:

This beautifully written and masterfully crafted book turned me inside out and took my breath away. The writing was elegant, lavishly detailed, evocative, and a feast for the senses with frequent tantalizing descriptions of exotic locales and delicious and foods and spices that kept my hunger on edge and eventually devastated my dieting efforts.

The premise and storylines were a fascinating combination of fact and fiction. Ms. Manning’s prose was eloquent and well-textured, complex and multi-layered, thoughtfully observant, and haunting. Her tender touches and emotive insights often stung my eyes and burned my throat. I have never been to Shanghai and had no idea of the unusual population and history or that it had become somewhat of a haven for stateless refugees, an unusual issue and term I was also unfamiliar with.

The characters were compelling and endearing, and their precarious and tenuous positions often left them a heartbeat away from exposure; I felt their tension and reveled in their successes and joys. Their profound experiences were intensely moving and will definitely resonate within me for quite some time.

I really enjoyed this book. I enjoy historical fiction and was intrigued by a story about there being Jewish refugee camps in Shanghai during the Holocaust. That was something definitely not taught in history class. The story alternates between WWII Shanghai and a young Jewish girl, Romy, and her family that flee Austria for Shanghai and present-day Australia (and Shanghai) with Romy's granddaughter, Alexandra. The story explores themes of family, friendship, sacrifice, secrets, the atrocities of war and how they shape people. The biggest underlining theme of the story though is what connects everyone together and how not only our past but our family's past can effect our lives. This was an absorbing book and I loved watching the story unfold. Fans of historical fiction, particularly WWII or the Holocaust will enjoy this.

I really liked this book. It is one of those historical fiction novels that not only keep you reading because the plot is interesting, but I learned something new as I read. Many new things actually. The story moves between 2016 Shanghai and Australia, following Alexandra as she searches for her mother’s birth family- and the other half of the story takes place in 1939-1940’s Shanghai, as Alexandra’s grandmother Romy flees the Nazis to take up safe haven with her parents in China. I did not know that China took up to 20,000 European refugees during World War Two. I wonder why I never learned about that as I studied this era of history in college.
The story is rich in details and in description. It made me want to look up images of old Shanghai or visit modern shanghai someday. My only wish is that the author made the flashbacks and flashforwards longer in each time. Sometimes they were so brief that I had trouble getting into the story for all the jumping around. But this isa personal preference.
I definitely think readers who enjoy historical fiction with some mystery and intrigue mixed in would like this novel. I definitely recommend it.

Romy and her family flee from the Nazi's, finding themselves in Shanghai. Romy befriends local girl, Li, and they are quickly inseparable. In the present day, Alexandra travels to Australia to be with her grandparents, Romy and Wilhelm, as Wilhelm lays dying. Once Wilhelm passes, Alexandra takes a job in Shanghai, determined to uncover more of their past.

I found myself very disappointed in this book. If you are searching for family history, and you have a living relative, they are your first stop. I found the big twist at the end to be completely unrealistic. I don't want to give anything away, but it just made me shake my head. Overall, this book was a bust.

Song of the Jade Lily takes the reader on a different path out of Austria in 1938. The family needs to flee, but where to go. Given an opportunity they choose Shanghai. The story that follows shows the reader their journey in 1938, and the life they made in Australia in interlaced chapters.

The book is engaging and intriguing with a secret that needs to be unraveled. The problems around the escape and the stay in Shanghai reveal wartime issues that are not often part of the Holocaust story. Two families become intertwined and only 2 generations later is it shared.

Thoroughly recommend this book!

I could not put down this book, as the story of Romy Bernfeld and her granddaughter, Alexandra, captured my heart. Romy and her parents flee Vienna at a time Jewish refugees were being refused as the war was underway. Fleeing to Shanghai, Romy has to adjust to a new reality, as her story is that of life in Shanghai for the Jews escaping the Nazis. Jump to 2016, as Alexandra is mourning the loss of her grandfather, unaware grandmother Romy has kept secrets. Alexandra travels to Shanghai to find out more about her mother, and detailed descriptions of the architecture, gardens and food enhance the novel. I highly recommend and thank Netgalley for the advanced copy.

With a plot full of secrets, this novel may be remembered most for its description of Shanghai, leading up to and including World War II. Young Romy escaped from Austria with her parents after one brother was murdered by the Germans and another one sent to Dachau. They relocated to Shanghai where all seemed safe, only to be persecuted again by the Japanese during the brutal occupation. The story moves back and forth between the war years and 2016, when Alexandra, Romy's granddaughter, is trying to sort out the story behind her Chinese mother's adoption. Her quest brings her from her high power job in London, to Australia where she grew up with her grandparents, and a new job in Shanghai. The moving around in time and geography is smooth and the characters are clearly enough drawn that they are distinct for the most part. The plot is lightened a bit by the promise of romance as well as the mysteries that Alexandra uncovers.

I learned a lot from The Song of the Jade Lily. I had never really known the story of the Jews who fled to Shanghai before WWII, nor had I known much about Chinese medicine. This was a well-written story about a difficult time, and included a mystery that I never figured out until it was revealed at the very end.