Shanghai Secrets – The Song of the Jade Lily by Kirsty Manning

Many of us living in the United States, whether we are of European (Ashkenazic) Jewish background, or not, are only dimly aware at best of the Jewish community that formed in Shanghai, China as World War II began. And, even if we know a bit about that, we probably know even less about Jewish emigration to Australia.

Here is a vivid and beautifully-crafted novel that brings that all into focus. A professional-class Jewish family flees their home in Vienna immediately after Kristallnicht and travels to Shanghai to find refuge. Their young daughter, Romy, horrified by the murders and losses she has witnessed, gradually becomes enthralled with her new milieu, but memories of her past are never far away.

Paralleling Romy's story is the contemporary one of her granddaughter, Alexandra. Alexandra has traveled to Melbourne from her job as a successful commodities trader and dealmaker in London to spend time with her elderly grandparents as her grandfather, Wilhelm, spends his last days. She is unusually close to her grandparents because they raised her after her parents were killed in an accident when she was a child, but Alexandra, who was told her mother was adopted from China, has many unanswered questions about her heritage. The research she has done so far has led to dead ends, and she hesitates to question her grandmother too closely while she is mourning.

When an opportunity to work in Shanghai opens up, it is a chance for Alexandra to move on from an unsuccessful romantic relationship in London, and to quietly go forward with the family research that is so important to her.

The stories of these two generations of women are enmeshed in a finely constructed, wonderfully descriptive narrative that carefully unmasks the secrets Romy and Wilhelm felt they needed to keep, and brings the closure Alexandra is seeking. And, for the reader, there is a great deal to learn and understand. Australian author Kirsty Manning has written a wonderful book, and I am hoping to find and read her debut novel, The Midsummer Garden, which has not been released here. There is another book coming in 2020, so far called The Lost Jewels – looking forward to that.