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The Shanghai Wife
The Shanghai Wife | Emma Harcourt
4 posts | 3 read | 2 to read
Shanghai, 1925: Leaving behind the loneliness and trauma of her past in country Australia, Annie Brand arrives to the political upheaval and glittering international society of Shanghai in the 1920s. Journeying up the Yangtze with her new husband, the ship’s captain, Annie revels in the sense of adventure but when her husband decides the danger is too great and sends her back to Shanghai, her freedom is quickly curtailed. Against her will, Annie finds herself living alone in the International Settlement, increasingly suffocated by the judgemental Club ladies and their exclusive social scene: one even more restrictive than that she came from. Sick of salacious gossip and colonial condescension, and desperate to shake off the restrictions of her position in the world, Annie is slowly drawn into the bustling life and otherness of the real Shanghai, and begins to see the world from the perspective of the local people, including the servants who work at her husband’s Club. But this world is far more complex and dangerous than the curious Annie understands and unknowingly, she becomes caught in a web of intrigue and conspiracy as well as a passionate and forbidden love affair she could not have predicted: one with far-reaching consequences...
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Victoria_Clyne
The Shanghai Wife | Emma Harcourt
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The story of a newly married woman trying to navigate her way through the international society of 1920's Shanghai. A descriptive novel, I could visualise the environment. I found elements of the story predictable but an enjoyable read.

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Joanne1
The Shanghai Wife | Emma Harcourt
Pickpick

An interesting and unique look into 1920s Shanghai during the rise of communism and the fall of the imperialists. I knew nothing about this period in history. The story itself was engaging and nicely written.

36 likes1 stack add
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Joanne1
The Shanghai Wife | Emma Harcourt
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This is good story but is being overshadowed by a great one I just finished. I‘m listening to it on my commute and I‘ve found myself drifting off a couple of times.

Victoria_Clyne Oh don't tell me that. I'm a couple of chapters in. 6y
Joanne1 @Victoria_Clyne it‘s not bad, just did hold my attention as much as others. I really liked the setting and characters. I think maybe it needed a bit more vivid writing to really hold the audience as an audio. It‘s worth going through to the end, it gets a bit gangster-story which was interesting. 6y
Victoria_Clyne Oh good I've been quite liking it so @Joanne1. And the ganster bit sounds interesting. 6y
Joanne1 @Victoria_Clyne you should definitely reserve this book on BorrowBox though. I think it‘s the best audiobook I‘ve listened to this year. 6y
Victoria_Clyne Done @Joanne1. But golly I get it til mid February. 6y
41 likes5 comments
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BookThingo
The Shanghai Wife | Emma Harcourt
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Panpan

Reviewed for Books+Publishing. The author tries something new—Shanghai 1925 was filled with tension and turmoil—but Annie, the protagonist is too shallow and bland to do justice to the setting.

Additional notes: some of the dialogue by minor Chinese characters are spelled to show their accent. YMMV but this bothered me a lot as it served no useful purpose to the plot.