Shanghai – Christopher New

Description

Shanghai by Christopher New is the first novel in the acclaimed China Coast Trilogy, a sweeping historical saga that captures the drama and danger of early 20th-century Shanghai. When young Englishman John Denton arrives in 1903, one of his first sights is the brutal public beheading of pirates — a jarring introduction to a city of extreme contrasts, where colonial opulence stands alongside lawlessness, revolution, and suffering.

Over the course of his life, Denton is swept up in Shanghai’s turmoil. He builds, loses, and regains a fortune, dangerously offends a ruthless triad leader, enters the murky world of politics, and endures imprisonment under Japanese occupation. Through it all, his enduring love for Su-mei — a captivating sing-song girl who becomes his wife — anchors him amid the chaos. Blending historical fact with gripping fiction, Shanghai paints an unforgettable portrait of a man living at the heart of one of history’s most volatile epochs.

A must-read for fans of epic historical fiction and richly layered sagas, Shanghai offers a captivating glimpse into a city and era shaped by power, corruption, war, and forbidden love.