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Shanghai

A gripping new wartime thriller from 'the most accomplished spy novelist working today' (Sunday Times)
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( 3,365 ratings, 367 reviews)
Brief Description
In this dazzling thriller, internationally bestselling author Joseph Kanon gives us his richest setting yet: pre-World War II Shanghai, where glamour and squalor exist side by side and murder is just a cost of doing business. A love affair against all odds, a city dancing on... Read More
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From internationally bestselling author Joseph Kanon, hailed by the Sunday Times as ‘the most accomplished spy novelist working today’, comes a thriller set in WW2 Shanghai, a seductive and corrupt setting defined by wealth, crime and a dazzling nightlife.

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In this dazzling thriller, internationally bestselling author Joseph Kanon gives us his richest setting yet: pre-World War II Shanghai, where glamour and squalor exist side by side and murder is just a cost of doing business. A love affair against all odds, a city dancing on the rim of a volcano—Shanghai is the story of a political haven that becomes a minefield of conflicting loyalties.

Daniel Lohr, sensing that the Nazis are closing in on the Jews, leaves his dying father in Berlin and boards a ship to Shanghai. His passage is dependent upon him delivering a package to his shady uncle, his father’s brother, upon arrival. Daniel has no idea what the package contains. On board is Leah, also fleeing the Nazis. She and Daniel conduct a passionate but brief shipboard affair, but are separated as soon as the ship docks in Shanghai. Will he ever see her again?

Daniel is immediately plunged into his uncle’s seductive and corrupt world and becomes involved in the launch of a new nightclub, the biggest, best, and most glitzy in town. When violence breaks out and lives are at risk, he finds himself drawn irrevocably into the terrifying underworld that is wartime Shanghai.

Beautifully atmospheric and intricately plotted, this masterful thriller marks exciting new ground for an author hailed by the Sunday Times as ‘the most accomplished spy novelist working today’.

PRAISE FOR JOSEPH KANON:

'Heart-poundingly suspenseful' Washington Post

'Joseph Kanon owns this corner of the literary landscape' LEE CHILD

'Kanon is fast approaching the complexity and relevance not just of le Carré and Greene but even of Orwell' New York Times

'Joseph Kanon continues to demonstrate that he is up there with the very best . . . he is the master of the shadows of the era' The Times

'Sensational! No one writes period fiction with the same style and suspense – not to mention substance – as Joseph Kanon' Scott Turow

'Thoroughly absorbing, a thoughtful and subtle evocation of a place and era' Sunday Telegraph

'The perfect combination of intrigue and accurate history brought to life' Alan Furst

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781398519787

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 23 May 2024

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Simon & Schuster Ltd

Edition: Export/Airside

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 19.0mm

Width: 153.0mm

Height: 234.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 304

About the Author

Joseph Kanon is the Edgar Award–winning author of Los Alamos and nine other novels: The Prodigal Spy, Alibi, Stardust, Istanbul Passage, Leaving Berlin, Defectors, The Accomplice, The Berlin Exchange, and The Good German, which was made into a major motion picture starring George Clooney and Cate Blanchett. Other awards include the Hammett Award of the International Association of Crime Writers and the Human Writes Award of the Anne Frank Foundation. He lives in New York City.

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