The Last Boat Out of Shanghai

The Last Boat Out of Shanghai by Helen Zia. This book documents the final days of Shanghai as a non-communist city in China. The vehicle used is to tell the stories of 4 people who all ended up immigrating to the United States. The narrative follows them from being young people in the 1930s until the communist victory of the national army in 1949. The four come from different walks of life, rich and poor, educated and orphaned and abandoned. The author begins in the 1930s with the occupation of Shanghai by the Japanese as WWII gets underway. The complicated history of Shanghai with foreigners and foreign governments is used to tell the story of complicated hardships and some tragedy. The resilience of the four is illustrated in their toughness and intelligence in dealing with the many hardships and obstacles they overcome. The author states at the beginning of the book that this is a history that has not been told before. And I think certainly it has not been told in this way, I am sure it is in some history books, but the compelling personal story of these 4 people and the people they interact with gives a richness to the story.