Fans of Joseph Kanon's 10 previous novels (Istanbul Passage; Leaving Berlin; Defectors) know his historic fiction is riddled with intrigue, and his 11th work, Shanghai, once again delivers readers into a period rife with uncertainty and drama.
In the late 1930s, Daniel Lohr is lucky to get out of Europe on an Italian liner bound for Shanghai, the one port accepting Jews after the Nazis seized their passports and funds. Sailing east, even to the seedy culture of the Western enclave on Chinese land, is a gift arranged by his uncle Nathan. Daniel's escape leads to his immersion in his uncle's gambling clubs in a city of glamour, politics, and violence. Ruthless Chinese gangs demand "squeeze" from the nightclubs, and Uncle Nathan knows the rules of bribery.
As Daniel learns Shanghai's complicated dangers, he also commits to protecting beautiful, vulnerable Leah, his partner in a passionate shipboard affair, who has fled to a refuge that is both haven and prison. Meanwhile, the occupying Japanese military wants businesses and the Chinese "at each other's throats." While musicians play big band dance numbers, Communists seek control, and Daniel straddles these worlds while honorably following a hard-earned philosophy: "Things won't change until we change them." Leah accepts the concessions she makes to survive, and although Daniel agrees that "this is who we are now," Kanon's complex, heart-stopping plot twists and a thrilling climax suggest that true escape awaits the tenacious war victims. --Cheryl McKeon, Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany, N.Y.