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A review by ruyireads
Last Boat Out of Shanghai: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Fled Mao's Revolution by Helen Zia
5.0
Unfortunately, I think that many people would pass over giving this book a read if they didn't have an interest in Chinese history. I started it because of my interest in learning more about Shanghai's history, and I'm so glad it led me to this book!
Four narratives are presented (though I want to note that in order to write this book the author also performed a decade of research and conducted hundreds of interviews with Chinese from that time), each focusing on a specific individual who had to find a way to survive the unpredictability of war and internal political clashes. I can see why these four were chosen - they are from varying socioeconomic backgrounds, each with a vastly different journey and path to survival. For lack of a better way to describe it, LBOOS reads more like a work of fiction than a dry historical record. To me this was a good thing - it pulled me deeper into the story and kept me interested. Definitely recommend!
Four narratives are presented (though I want to note that in order to write this book the author also performed a decade of research and conducted hundreds of interviews with Chinese from that time), each focusing on a specific individual who had to find a way to survive the unpredictability of war and internal political clashes. I can see why these four were chosen - they are from varying socioeconomic backgrounds, each with a vastly different journey and path to survival. For lack of a better way to describe it, LBOOS reads more like a work of fiction than a dry historical record. To me this was a good thing - it pulled me deeper into the story and kept me interested. Definitely recommend!