Tag: Canadian writer

Janie Chang—The Porcelain Moon

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.

Camilla Gibb’s — Sweetness in the belly *****

After Lily’s parents are murdered in a Moroccan alleyway, she is brought up by the Great Abdal—a Sufi saint’s disciple—so that Lily has no affiliation with England. She trains as a nurse and moves to Ethiopia where she lives with Amina while working with Doctor Aziz. Soon the pair form a bond, but political upheaval separates them when Lily flees to England, a country she has never known. While Amina searches for her husband, Lily desperately searches for Aziz.

Audrey Thomas’ — Isobel Gunn *****

The Orkney islanders think Isobel Gunn is crazy when she races to meet each ship docked in the harbour asking about James. Only Magnus remembers how heroic Isobel was twenty years earlier when she disguised herself as a man and sailed to Rupert’s Land back in the 1800s to work in the harsh Canadian wilderness.

Equally as good is Thomas’ Tatty Coram, a minor character from one of Dickens’ novels whom she weaves into the life of Dickens himself.