City Rising

The first book in the 'Shanghai Tetralogy,' City Rising, starts on the Hua Shan (the Holy Mountain) 250 years before Christ where the FIRST EMPEROR the most powerful man the world to that time had ever known bequeaths a talisman to his three trusted followers: the BodyGuard, his favorite Courtesan and his Head Confucian - a narwhal tusk with carvings depicting the growth for the next 2500 years of a city at the Bend in the River - Shanghai. The warning from the First Emperor before he commits suicide is to watch for the White Ships on Water - and so the progeny of the three who are entrusted with the Tusk do - and then - in 1841 - they arrive. British Men of War ships - and Opium.


City Rising tells the story of two destitute Baghdadi boys who become opium lords - and the battles against the powerful British Opium companies - and the boys' eventual love of the City at the Bend in the River - Shanghai.

DAVID ROTENBERG is a professor emeritus of theatre studies at York University, where he taught graduate students for over 25 years. He has released 12 novels which have been published by Penguin, Simon and Schuster, McArthur and Company, St. Martin’s Press, and ECW. His novels have been optioned in the past for major motion picture adaptation. City Rising is presently in negotiation with London producers. He is the founder and artistic director of the world-renowned actor training institute - Pro Actors Lab. His four book epic historical fiction series entitled, City Rising the ‘Shanghai Tetralogy’ and is based on true events and explores the legend of two Iraqi-Jews, and the renowned port city across several centuries.