Uncle Louis is sent with Theo and Pauline from Shanghai by the Deng family to start an antique business in Paris. He plans to arrange his son, Theo’s marriage and set him up in the business so he can return to China. But Theo manages to delay the arranged marriage first by further education, then finally by working as an interpreter for the British during WW1. When Pauline learns her uncle’s first wife is arranging her marriage, she is desperate to find her cousin to help her convince her uncle not to send her back to China. She rushes to Noyelles where Theo has been working with Chinese labourers but is distressed and fearful by what she discovers.
Every Janie Chang book I’ve read has been a five out of five. This one delves into a neglected part of World War1’s history that I had never read about which is seen through the eyes of its main characters—Theo and Pauline Deng and their friend Henri Liu, a Chinese journalist.
At the death of Elizabeth’s father, she and her mother move in with her grandfather. And while Elizabeth’s mother doesn’t care for her daughter, her grandfather dotes on her and teaches her all he knows about farming and sheep. After her mother remarries and abandons her daughter, Elizabeth is taken in by her best friend, Bridie’s parents. They are close friends until Elizabeth makes the biggest mistake that will change her life forever.
When Angela discovers an undelivered letter hidden in one of the antiques in the Toronto shop where she works, she is determined to find Nancy—the person who should have received this confession ten years earlier. Nancy was adopted, but from the letter it appears she never knew.
While the characters are fictional, events in the novel relating to the Canadian Government’s earlier policies on abortion and the church’s institutional treatment of unmarried mothers is based on historical fact. Despite a little unnecessary detail throughout the book, this is still a compelling and eye-opening read that I couldn’t put down.
Nina was a Russian ballerina who manages to escape Stalin’s dangerous regime after her artistic friends become victims. In Boston, she buries her past until she decides to sell her jewellery collection. But when an associate from the auction house and a professor of Russian delve into the unique jewellery, they unravel a mystery that changes all their lives.
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