Remembering Shanghai: A Memoir of Socialites, Scholars, and Scoundrels, Isabel Chao

Winner of over 20 awards including Rubery Award BOOK OF THE YEAR and Writer's Digest GRAND PRIZE
An Extraordinary Multigenerational Saga

A high position bestowed by China's empress dowager grants power and wealth to the Sun family. For Isabel, growing up in glamorous 1930s and '40s Shanghai, it is a life of utmost privilege. But while her scholar father and fashionable mother shelter her from civil war and Japanese occupation, they cannot shield the family forever.
 
When Mao comes to power, eighteen-year-old Isabel journeys to Hong Kong, not realizing that she will make it her home--and that she will never see her father again. Meanwhile, the family she has left behind struggles to survive, only to have their world shattered by the Cultural Revolution. Isabel returns to Shanghai fifty years later with her daughter, Claire, to confront their family's past--one they discover is filled with love and betrayal, kidnappers and concubines, glittering pleasure palaces and underworld crime bosses.
 
Lavishly illustrated and meticulously researched, Remembering Shanghai follows five generations from a hardscrabble village to vibrant Shanghai to the bright lights of Hong Kong. By turns harrowing and heartwarming, this vivid memoir explores identity, loss and the unpredictable nature of life against the epic backdrop of a nation and a people in turmoil.
 
Available in hardcover, paperback, Audible, or Kindle. Includes 200 rarely published historical images, photographs from private family collections, and watercolor illustrations.
 
PRAISE FOR REMEMBERING SHANGHAI
 
"Engaging and entertaining."  South China Morning Post

"A volume that demands to be held."  Los Angeles Review of Books

"A feast of winning elements ... absolutely fascinating."  Bookish Asia

"An unexpected gem."  Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society China

"The perfect combination of historical fiction, memoir and novel."  Reader Views

"Absolutely gorgeous--a visual delight."  Asia Literary Review

"A book I truly could not put down."  Fête Chinoise

"A beguiling memoir of Shanghai."  Hong Kong Review of Books
WINNER OF OVER 20 BOOK AWARDS
 
·     Rubery Book Award BOOK OF THE YEAR, NON-FICTION
·     Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards GRAND PRIZE
·     Independent Author Network OUTSTANDING MEMOIR, BOOK OF THE YEAR 2nd place
·     Indie Reader Discovery Awards FIRST PLACE NON-FICTION
·     IPPY Independent Publisher Book Awards BEST FIRST BOOK, BEST E-BOOK DESIGN, COVER DESIGN 2nd place
·     Reader Views Literary Awards MEMOIR, GLOBAL AWARD
·     Independent Press Awards MEMOIR, NEW NON-FICTION
·     Pinnacle Book Achievement Award BEST MEMOIR
·     eLit Awards MEMOIR, BEST BOOK TRAILER
·     Shelf Unbound Best Indie Book TOP NOTABLE INDIE
·     Eric Hoffer GRAND PRIZE Finalist, CULTURE 2nd place, FIRST HORIZON AWARD Finalist
·     Readers' Favorite Award Contest NON-FICTION HISTORICAL 2nd place
·     Next Generation Indie Awards HISTORICAL NON-FICTION Finalist, MEMOIR Finalist, BEST COVER DESIGN NON-FICTION Finalist
·     National Indie Excellence Awards BOOK COVER DESIGN NON-FICTION Finalist
·     Best Book Awards BEST INTERIOR DESIGN Finalist
·     Sarton Women's Book Awards MEMOIR Finalist