by Lisa See
I have read most of this author's other books, but this one, published in 2011, escaped me until now. If you read the first Shanghai Girls book, you definitely will love this one. It is so well-written and the characters are likeable and well-developed. The setting is described such that I saw it like a movie in my mind as I read it. The language sounds of the period and location. The family dynamics, including how girls were viewed in China in the 1950s, are historically correct. The corruption of the Red China government is documented here in the horrors of the so-called lifestyle of this culture. I often had to look away from the vividly horrific descriptions, but on the other hand, I didn't want it to end.