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Shanghai Grand: Forbidden Love and International Intrigue on the Eve of the Second World War - Softcover
Synopsis
From award-winning and bestselling author Taras Grescoe comes a highly compelling and bestselling account of the high life in Shanghai just before the Second World War
Finalist for the B.C. National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction and the Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction
On the eve of the Second World War, the foreign-controlled port of Shanghai was the rendezvous point for many of the 20th century’s most outlandish adventurers, who all congregated under the watchful eye of the fabulously wealthy Sir Victor Sassoon.
Emily Hahn was a legendary New Yorker writer who would cover China for nearly 50 years and play an integral part in opening Asia up to the West. But at the height of the Depression, “Mickey” Hahn had just arrived in Shanghai, nursing a broken heart after a disappointing affair with an alcoholic Hollywood screenwriter.
At Sassoon’s glamorous Cathay Hotel, Hahn is absorbed into the social swirl of expats drawn to pre-war China, among them Ernest Hemingway, Martha Gellhorn, Harold Acton and the colourful gangster Morris “Two-Gun” Cohen, who once lived in Saskatoon and Edmonton and later retired to Montreal. When she meets Zau Sinmay, a Chinese poet from an illustrious family, she discovers first-hand the real Shanghai: a city of rich colonials, triple agents, opium smokers, displaced Chinese peasants and increasingly desperate White Russian and Jewish refugees. But danger lurks on the horizon and Mickey barely makes it out alive when the brutal Japanese occupation destroys the seductive world of pre-war Shanghai and Mao Tse-tung’s Communists come to power.
With his trademark style and verve, Taras Grescoe brings this rich history to life in all its glorious, larger-than-life detail.
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From the Back Cover
Finalist for the Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction
Finalist for the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction
On the eve of the Second World War, the foreign-controlled port of Shanghai was the rendezvous for the century’s most outlandish adventurers, all under the watchful eye of the fabulously wealthy Sir Victor Sassoon. Emily “Mickey” Hahn was a legendary New Yorker writer who would play an integral role in opening Asia up to the West. Hahn had arrived in Shanghai nursing a broken heart, convinced she would never love again. After entering Sassoon’s glamorous Cathay Hotel, however, Hahn is absorbed into the social swirl of expats drawn to pre-war China, among them Ernest Hemingway, Harold Acton, and the colourful gangster Morris “Two-Gun” Cohen, who once plied his trade on the Canadian prairies. When Hahn meets Zau Sinmay, a Chinese poet from an illustrious family, she discovers the real Shanghai: a city of rich colonials, triple agents, opium-smokers, displaced Chinese peasants, and increasingly desperate White Russian and Jewish refugees.
About the Author
TARAS GRESCOE is the author of six books, including the bestselling Bottomfeeder, which won the Writers’ Trust Prize for Non-Fiction, the Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction and the International Association of Culinary Professionals’ Award for Literary Food Writing, and was shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. His books Sacré Blues, The End of Elsewhere and Straphanger were also Writers’ Trust Prize finalists. He lives in Montreal.Visit him online at www.tarasgrescoe.com or on Facebook, or follow him on Twitter @grescoe.
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- PublisherHarperCollins Publishers
- Publication date2017
- ISBN 10 1443425540
- ISBN 13 9781443425544
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages480
- Rating
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