The Last Rose of Shanghai: A Novel

A sad yet hopeful story. The characters are well developed and carry a winding plot throughout.

Another compelling book from Weina Dai Randel. This book has been sitting on my kindle, for a very long time, I have read her two previous books and enjoyed them as well.This is a historical fiction novel set during the Japanese Occupation in China, during WWII and how Jewish refugees immigrated to Shanghai. I knew little about this history and found the book enlightening.This is basically a love story. Alyi is a young Chinese woman who owns a night club in Shanghai. She meets Ernest a Jewish man and hires him to play the piano in her nightclub. Alyi’s life is all planned out by family tradition . She is engaged to be married in a few months. She falls in love with Ernest, her family is furious.Ernest is trying to make a living for himself and his sister while waiting for his parents to come from Germany. Their love story gets tangled up with the horrid of life in China under Japanese rule. Alyi must find a way to keep her nightclub surviving.Both make decisions that will change their lives forevermore.Interesting story very well researched.

Absolutely loved this book. Wanted to find out what would happen but didn’t want the story to end

Well written and such a new history lesson.Thank you, i have enyoid The love story and The characters are Just perfect.

The Last Rose of Shanghai by Weina Dai Randel is a story of love and redemption in Japanese-occupied Shanghai during World War II. Two very different people from very different cultures are drawn together through the freedom of music. In 1940, Aiyi Shao was a young heiress and the owner of a nightclub. A nightclub she wants to bring back its popularity and glamor. Ernest Reismann is a penniless Jewish refugee driven out of Germany. He is an outsider in a community wary of outsiders. Aiyi hires Ernest to play piano at her club, defying customs and the wishes of her family and fiancé. He becomes a sensation and the club becomes the hot spot once again. Soon Aiyi and Ernest share more than just a passion for jazz. As the war escalates, they find themselves torn apart time and time again as their choices between love and survival grow desperate. Will they find a way to be together? Or will the war keep them apart forever?I enjoyed that The Last Rose of Shanghai presents a story of World War II from another part of the world other than Europe. It is easily forgotten that the world was at war other than the European front. Unfortunately, the story was way too long with 92 chapters and alternating points of view between Aiyi and Ernest. Granted the chapters were short but the story dragged at points. The ending was a bit far-fetched. Ms. Randel’s descriptions of the music were so wonderful and lyrical that I could almost hear the music in my head as Ernest played. I saved quite a few great quotes. One of my favorites was “There is a kind of love that strikes like a thunderbolt; it blinds you, yet opens your eyes to see the world anew.” Overall, I enjoyed The Last Rose of Shanghai. If you enjoy World War II stories and are looking for new stories about the era, I recommend The Last Rose of Shanghai.The Last Rose of Shanghai is available in paperback, eBook, and audiobook

I loved this book and have recommended it to all my friends. Very well written

This book opened my eyes to a part of World War II that I don't know existed. This brought up names I had heard and put them into place. It also showed me a culture unfamiliar to me.I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is a love story, but so much more.

Set in Shanghai and alternating both points of view and timelines, The Last Rose of Shanghai is the love story of Chinese born Aiyi Shao and German born Ernest Reismann who becomes a Jewish refugee in Shanghai at the start of the war. It's also a story about the war from the perspective of the Japanese occupied Shanghai peoples. It's a story that describes the absolute horror of war and terrible depths to which desperate people can stoop, and the heroism that others can show in the same situation under the same circumstances with a different mindset. Whether the hero is stealing enemy secrets or feeding refugees or putting a roof over the head of a poor young man and his sister or just finding small ways to not only survive but to live and help others live, there were many in Shanghai in the 1940s.Aiyi has hired a documentarian to finally tell her story of the war, and of her personal successes and failures, the highest highs and lowest lows she experienced, fame and fortune to poverty and back again. She wants to tell the story of the man she loved and justify her part in his downfall without judgment. And so Aiyi meets with the journalist and the story unfolds in the 1940s from both Aiyi and Ernest's point of view, then circling back to her telling of it in the 1980s, and back again.There are some shocking revelations but mostly there's just the aching reality of life, love, and surviving it all. The book is very descriptive of events, and much of it is the ugliness of war and of what an occupation will do to a city and her people. There are hopes dashed, dreams shattered, and permanent injuries, as well as death and destruction. There is also tenderness and love and hope, peeking out just when you think you can't take anymore of the bad stuff. It's a haunting novel, not in any hurry to tell itself, but rather gently tugging you along its journey to the truth.I received this book as a part of the Amazon first reads program.

Muito envolvente

i consumed this book within a day . it was hard to put down, and I found myself looking for any chance I had to read it ..on the bus, in a taxi...I even sneaked a few pages in while at the sauna. its now 5am, I've been reading since midnight, and I've got tears streaming down my face ..good book. worth the interruption to your daily life ..

The writing flowed as did the story. It was well researched and I felt a connection with the characters so became immersed in their lives. Some writers fail to do that when writing from two POV

Il faut lire ce livre …. Merveilleusement écrit !

Unbelievably i00nteresting and authentic with a slice of history.Who would believe suchsuch incidents really happened in China .Tantalising story of a women with grit and determination.