Daniel Lohr is a cautious man for three reasons. First, his criminal uncle taught him how to watch his own back. Second, he’s a communist. Third, he’s a Jew and it’s 1938. As Joseph Kanon’s new novel Shanghai opens, Daniel is about to board a ship for the only foreign port that doesn’t require an entry visa and is one of the only places European Jews can find refuge. And he doesn’t know it yet, but Daniel is going to need every skill and trick he ever learned.
Most of Shanghai takes place in that city but Kanon gives us a taste of romance before plunging his characters into the underworld of the eponymous Chinese city. As he boards, Daniel makes the acquaintance of Leah Auerbach and her mother. Leah is prickly but intriguing. (We will learn exactly why Leah tries to keep men at bay in short order.) In spite of that prickliness, Leah and Daniel spend many nights in his berth while the ship steams from Trieste to Shanghai. During the days, Daniel matches wits with a Kempeitai colonel named Yamada. Yamada is traveling to Shanghai to help the Japanese occupation govern the sprawling, chaotic city and is clearly eager to start throwing his weight around.
The real action begins as soon as the boat lands in Shanghai and Daniel is scooped up by his uncle, Nathan Green. This uncle now owns stakes in two successful nightclubs and has gone as straight as he can in a city where it seems like everyone is out to scam everyone else (the Kempeitai included). He offers to take a grateful Daniel under his wing, but Daniel resists a touch out of a vague sense of trying to stay uninvolved in the constant scheming and plotting. That vague notion disappears fairly quickly. It dissolves entirely when he discovers that Leah has had to reluctantly take up with Yamada to give herself and her mother a bit of financial security. Daniel doesn’t fault Leah for how she earns her room and board; it’s the sight of the smirking Yamada that pisses him off.
The plots and subplots come fast and furious once Kanon has all his characters in position. Schemes are met with betrayals. I lost count of all the double-crosses. To be honest, Shanghai would make a hell of a movie (though the writers would have to cut out a lot and deal with the period-accurate whiffs of racism). Daniel’s character—and his tangled sense of ethics—hooked me along with the depth of the setting. Shanghai is as much a character as the people in this book. Fans of historical fiction and thrillers will enjoy the hell out of this book, which takes us to a place I rarely see in novels set during World War II.
If all that doesn’t encourage you to give Shanghai a try, let me add that the ending is a masterpiece of a conclusion. It’s rare that I read a book that wraps up all its loose ends with such a clear sense that the characters will continue living their complicated lives beyond the last page.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.
