Member Reviews
Shanghailanders is centred around one super-rich family, their relationships and their emotional lives. It begins in 2035 and then moves back in time, the point of view shifting between family members and people close to them. The father, Leo, is Chinese and the mother, Eko, Japanese-French, and their three daughters grow up proficient in four languages. Their privilege means they live in an international bubble so it is only through Leo and some of the secondary characters that you gain much insight into Shanghai and China in this period.
The writing in Shanghailanders is very strong. The prose is atmospheric, the reflections of the characters thought-provoking. Their different identities are sensitively explored.
However, Shanghailanders employs not one but two high concepts – not just telling the story backwards, but beginning it in the future. If you’re going to make that demand on your readers there has to be a payoff. I didn’t think that was true in either case. It seems life in 2035 for the super-rich isn’t that different from life now (apart from faster trains). It’s a bit hot but climate change hasn’t dented their world, they still wear similar clothes, attend similar colleges, have similar social media sites.
And each time the story moved backwards in time, I just felt frustrated, because I wanted to know what happened next, not what had gone before. There is a surprise of sorts towards the end (the family’s beginning) but for me it wasn’t big enough to justify the expectation which the structure sets up.
This is a really compelling family novel, told in multiple POVs working its way backwards in time. We start in 2040, when Leo and Eko are the middle aged parents to three adult/young adult women, and work backwards to their wedding day in 2014. Family secrets are uncovered, but there's something quite unique about how the more intense secrets live in the past and therefore with this structure they come as the climax of the novel.
The writing is sharp and the characters are fully baked. There was one chapter that - for me - was a bit of an outlier as it featured a non-family member and didn't tie in much with the overall themes. The other non-relative chapter was much more coherent within the story.
Four stars - this is a great book and one I think many can relate to. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.
Very beautifully written! I was completely sucked in by this book and I couldn't put it down. Juli Man is an amazing writer and I cannot wait to see what they do next.
A brilliantly written novel. From the very start, the writing drew me in. I loved how Min was able to switch the narratives and the timezones of the story but still make it easy to follow. The way the story was told, recounting key moments backwards in time, was a refreshing change of pace, and really made the book and the moments stand out. I also really loved the main family, they were all flawed and incredibly interesting to read about. A moving story, with focus on family and culture, that was ambitious and poignant.
I love this beautiful novel. It's enormous and far reaching yet small and simple in message, a truly amazing debut.
In Shanghailanders, we are introduced to the Yang family and the time. 2040, The family is International and cosmopolitan from Japan, China and France.. The daughters in the future are situated in Boston and Paris. Through a variety of scenes and remembrances we begin to learn the intricacies of the family and the forces at play throughout their lives. Flashing backwards slowly to 2014 we learn about the Yang family - both from parents and daughters as well as grandparents and caretakers and staff.
It's truly an amazing work, all the more impressive as a debut! #Spiegel&Grau #grau #shanghailanders #julimin