Remembering Shanghai: A Memoir of Socialites, Scholars and Scoundrels

Rubery Award BOOK OF THE YEAR

Writer’s Digest GRAND PRIZE

An Extraordinary Multigenerational Saga

Audiobook narrated by two-time Asian American Film Lab best actress winner Rachel Yong and authors Isabel Sun Chao and Claire Chao

“Jaw-dropping, touching, insightful. ” Historic Shanghai

A high position bestowed by China's empress dowager grants power and wealth to the Sun family. Isabel lives a privileged life in glamorous 1930s and '40s Shanghai, sheltered from civil war and Japanese occupation by her scholar father and fashionable mother. But they cannot shield the family forever.

When Mao comes to power, 18-year-old Isabel journeys to Hong Kong, not realizing she will never see her father again. The family she has left behind struggles to survive, only to have their world shattered by the Cultural Revolution. Isabel returns to Shanghai 50 years later with her daughter, Claire, to confront their family's past—one they discover is filled with love and betrayal, kidnappers and concubines, glittering pleasure palaces and underworld crime bosses.

Remembering Shanghai follows five generations from a hardscrabble village to vibrant Shanghai to the bright lights of Hong Kong. By turns harrowing and heartwarming, this vivid, meticulously researched memoir explores identity, loss and the unpredictable nature of life against the epic backdrop of a nation in turmoil.

To enhance your enjoyment of the book, listen along with a lavishly illustrated printed copy or ebook, which include 160 rarely published historical images, private family photographs and watercolor illustrations.

© 2020 PLUM BROOK, LLC (Audiobook): 9781662149382

Release date

Audiobook: 21 December 2020