Book
Shanghai Grand : forbidden love and international intrigue on the eve of the Second World War / Taras Grescoe.
Record details
- ISBN: 9781443425537 (hardcover)
- Physical Description: xv, 455 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some colour), map ; 24 cm
- Edition: First Canadian edition.
- Publisher: Toronto : HarperAvenue, [2016]
- Copyright: ©2016
Content descriptions
| General Note: | "First published in the United Kingdom by Macmillan, an imprint of Pan Macmillan"--Title page verso. |
| Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Formatted Contents Note: | Map: Shanghai, 1935 -- Prologue: Zhujiajiao Water Town, Shanghai Municipality, March 28, 2014 -- Part 1 -- Shanghai, January 28, 1932 -- Where China Meets the World -- The Sassoon Gamble -- Part 2 -- St. Louis, 27 May 1916 -- The Flapper's Progress -- Shanghai Grand -- Mickey Checks In -- On the Shanghai Beat -- Part 3 -- Shanghai, April 12, 1935 -- Cathay and the Muse -- The Fantastic Mr. Pan -- Cosmopolis-on-the-Whangpoo -- Part 4 -- Shanghai, November 3, 1936 -- The Rise of the Dwarf Bandits -- Sweetie Pie Goes to Nanking -- Part 5 -- Shanghai, August 14, 1937 -- After Saturday -- The Solitary Island -- Waking from the Doze -- Part 6 -- Shanghai, August 1, 1941 -- The Last Light in a Dark World -- Check-Out Time -- Settling the Bill -- Epilogue. |
Search for related items by subject
| Genre: | Biographies. |
Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at Tsuga Consortium.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stroud Branch | 951.132042 Gre | 31681010014033 | NONFIC | Available | - |
- HARPERCOLL
From award-winning and bestselling author Taras Grescoe comes a highly compelling new bestselling book about the twilight of Shanghai before the Second World War
Finalist for the 2016 Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction
Longlisted for the 2017 British Columbia's National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction
On the eve of the Second World War, the foreign-controlled port of Shanghai was the rendezvous for the 20th centuryâs most outlandish adventurers, all under the watchful eye of the fabulously wealthy Sir Victor Sassoon. Emily Hahn was a legendary New Yorker writer who would cover China for nearly fifty years, and play an integral part in opening Asia up to the West. But at the height of the Depression, âMickeyâ Hahn had just arrived in Shanghai nursing a broken heart after a disappointing affair with an alcoholic Hollywood screenwriter, convinced she would never love again. After entering Sassoonâs glamorous Cathay Hotel, Hahn is absorbed into the social swirl of the expats drawn to pre-war China, among them Ernest Hemingway, Martha Gellhorn, Harold Acton and the colourful gangster named Morris âTwo-Gunâ Cohen, who had once lived in Saskatoon and Edmonton and later retired to Montreal. When she meets Zau Sinmay, a Chinese poet from an illustrious family, she discovers the real Shanghai through his eyes: the city of rich colonials, triple agents, opium-smokers, displaced Chinese peasants and increasingly desperate White Russian and Jewish refugees - a place her innate curiosity will lead her to discover first-hand. But danger lurks on the horizon and Mickey barely makes it out alive as the brutal Japanese occupation destroys the seductive world of pre-war Shanghai and Mao Tse-tungâs Communists come to power in China.
Taras Grescoe, with his trademark style and verve, brings this rich history to life in all its beautiful and intimate detail.
