Farewell Shanghai [Paperback]

Angel Wagenstein (Author), Elizabeth Frank (Translator), Deliana Simeonova (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 4, 2008

Elisabeth and Theodore Weissberg, famous musicians, Hilde, a young film extra, and Vladek, an Eastern European adventurer wanted by the police on political charges, flee Nazi Germany for Shanghai at the onset of World War II. A magnet for every human ambition and vice, Shanghai is a city of extremes–of dazzling wealth and wretched poverty, suffering and pleasure, and, for the four refugees, exile and safety. There, they enter the world of Jewish refugees, many of them artists and intellectuals, who must either starve or eke out an impoverished and sometimes degraded living, but they are determined to live intelligently, upholding the high culture, humor, and even, insofar as they can, the elegance of their former lives. Master storyteller Angel Wagenstein crafts an intense narrative of life and death, passionate love, and profound courage against the backdrop of the war and the millions of lives caught up in it.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Moving effortlessly from Paris to Dresden to Shanghai, Wagenstein (Isaac's Torah) masterfully chronicles the lives of European émigrés and refugees in WWII Shanghai. The cast of this ensemble novel is large. Elisabeth and Theodore Weissberg, a German mezzo-soprano and her German-Jewish virtuoso violinist husband, flee Dresden to eke out an existence in Shanghai's burgeoning Jewish ghetto, which ends up 30,000 strong as the Shoah begins. Hilde Braun, a German-Jewish actress, is living illegally in Paris aided by a mysterious Slav named Vladek, until events force them, separately, to Shanghai. Istvan Keleti, a homosexual Hungarian musician and drug-user, and Gertrude von Dammbach, a former call-girl-turned-baroness, are also among the persecuted and displaced, some of whom work with the Resistance to undermine Hitler. Wagenstein is impressive in his ability to move from the small details of individual displaced lives to a larger panorama of international intrigue: there's a telling subplot about tensions between the Japanese, who occupy Shanghai, and the Germans, with whom they've formed an uneasy alliance; another revealing thread concerns the loyalties of Chinese Catholic nuns. Wagenstein brings to life a largely unknown chapter of Nazi persecution. (Nov.)
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Review

Library Journal

Wagenstein intelligently interweaves the voices of several characters, whose common thread is their desire to live in safety. Winner of the 2004 Jean Monnet Award, this novel sheds light on a forgotten part of history that is only now becoming known. Recommended.


Publishers Weekly

"Moving effortlessly from Paris to Dresden to Shanghai, Wagenstein (Isaac’s Torah) masterfully chronicles the lives of European émigrés and refugees in WWII Shanghai...Wagenstein is impressive in his ability to move from the small details of individual displaced lives to a larger panorama of international intrigue...[he] brings to life a largely unknown chapter of Nazi persecution"


San Francisco Chronicle

The Bulgarian novelist sets refugees, spies and a few true believers into play for a sprawling and utterly engaging book...the strong connections between the characters illustrate not only the persistence of human nature but also the illogic of war.


Grand Rapids Press

For readers and dreamers, doers and seekers, a book can make the holiday and the coming year more meaningful. Here are some good picks to fill out your shopping list...
Farewell, Shanghai,by Angel Wagenstein
World War II Shanghai is a terrible haven for many German Jews fleeing the Nazis. Wagenstein, a Bulgarian whose book has been translated into English, has crafted a tense tale of love and loss, war and peace that focuses on Shanghai, a place of stunning poverty and dazzling wealth.


Moment

Farewell, Shanghai captures this political and cultural maelstrom during World War II. Vividly written, paced like a thriller and rich with cinematic detail, the reader can practically smell the fetid, swampy air of the city. Wagenstein’s smoothly translated and fluid narrative has a sardonic edge...The riveting story of the Jews in Shanghai in the 1930s and ’40s might seem hardly credible, but as Wagenstein archly says, “Is there anything more implausible than History?”


The Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA)

Wagenstein is one of Bulgaria’s greatest modern writers. In Farewell, Shanghai, he has constructed a fascinating and profoundly moving roman à clef.


National Jewish Post & Opinion

This is a narrative filled with barbarity and inhumanity leavened with fortitude and bravery. The fictional format chosen by the author provides an excellent vehicle for him to describe a relatively unfamiliar aspect of what happened to Jews during World War II. What he so ably sets forth has the true air of credibility, adding significantly to our knowledge about the Holocaust.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Other Press; Reprint edition (November 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590513088
• ISBN-13: 978-1590513088
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1.2 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #623,408 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Historical spy novel, May 11, 2009

By 

algo41 "algo41" (philadelphia, pa United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Farewell Shanghai (Paperback)

An historical spy novel, with an added focus on the Jewish condition in WWII in Shanghai; Jews there did not lead the sheltered life I had assumed. The writing is good, comparable to an Alan Furst novel. A more literary work might have focused more on Elizabeth Weisberg, a woman who did not have the stomach to survive the consequences of her principled choice. Was her choice wrong, and should her husband have permitted it? Hilde and Col Okura are especially interesting characters. The literary device used to open and close the book was not entirely successful.

You shouldn't notice that you are reading a translation, and a number of times I did, finding awkward constructions. Also, traditional Jewish communities do allow for a non-Jew to turn on lights, etc. for them if prearranged, contrary to the novel.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful yet Saddening, March 9, 2009

By 

John "Sparky" (Naperville, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Farewell Shanghai (Paperback)

I simply love this book, Angel Wagesntein, captures a long ago lost era which begs to be forgotten but must be remembered if not to learn from it. There is so much truth in this work of fiction. If not truth alone. I immensely enjoyed how the author, translators put such wonderful sentences together to describe the events in the story and place in time. It never really pulls itself in one direction that being a love story or a full account depiction and tribulations of the holocaust, although in a sense is what it is. But the story surpasses any sort of "documentary" style. This book is life-like in reality but has that sepia tone faded photo evoking story with well thought out real characters. The book is written in concise not over burdening chapters.

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A marvelously written..., December 27, 2007

By 

Jill Meyer (United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Farewell, Shanghai (Hardcover)

and translated novel of Shanghai and the Jewish colony there. The professional reviewers state very well how wonderful this novel truly is. And, evidently, it was translated from Bulgarian into French and then from French into English. This expert translation process speaks as well of the translators' skills as of the author's!