The Fat Man's Daughter [Kindle Edition]

Caroline Petit (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This debut novel views the Japanese invasion of China through a Westerner's eyes and gets its vivid details right. The time is 1937, and 19-year-old Leah Kolbe is left adrift in Hong Kong after the death of her father, Theo, a shady antiquities dealer. Does Leah belong in "polite Colonial society" or among the Chinese whose languages she speaks? Should she pursue a relationship with the sweet "male ingénue" Jonathan Hawatyne, who has been keeping her father's empty accounts, or with the mysterious Cezar da Silva, whom she meets in a Macao casino? She settles on improving her financial situation by smuggling valuables out of Japanese-occupied Manchuria for Chang, a member of the Chinese resistance. Leah makes the dangerous journey, encounters the puppet ruler Pu Yi (made famous by the film The Last Emperor) and secures the aid of his chief eunuch, Quan, who is secretly working for the resistance. The group enters Nanking en route to Hong Kong on the eve of the horrific Japanese invasion of 1938. Leah and the other thinly drawn figures are not intended as proper vehicles for telescoping the "rape of Nanking." Instead, Aussie Petit gives readers the journey into womanhood as exotic action-adventure, in the shadow of hundreds of thousands of murders. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

This first novel is set in the late 1930s and tells the story of Leah Kolbe, a young woman of American and Russian descent living in Hong Kong. It opens with the unexplained death of her father, an American well practiced in the art of acquiring and selling Chinese artifacts. Although only recently graduated from high school, Leah has learned enough about her father's business to be sought after by a mysterious Mr. Chang. He commissions her to reclaim imperial treasures that belong rightfully to the Chinese people from the Japanese controlled region of Manchukuo. International conflict and the horrors of Nanking serve as a backdrop for Leah's journey to and from mainland China, a journey filled with romance and murder and a cast of characters so diverse it spans the globe to include Russian entrepreneurs and a chief eunuch. The reader will be compelled by the intrigue of the underworld of ancient art dealing but at times will wish to know more about the characters and what motivates them. Recommended for large fiction collections. Andrea Japzon
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 1577 KB
• Print Length: 272 pages
• Publisher: Soho Press (June 1, 2006)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B001PIJ65G
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #518,430 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Needs More Feeling, May 31, 2009

By 

Tara (Utah) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Fat Man's Daughter (Paperback)

This was not a winner for me. It got off to an interesting enough start, but the further thru I read, the more disappointed I became. Complete lack of feelings and emotion. The main character, Leah, is a young woman dealing with her father's sudden unexplained death as well as the fact that he has left her with no funds. She undertakes a dangerous mission to steal some antiques from the child Emperor of China (who is actually being ruled by Japan at the time) and becomes engrossed in some messy politics. My problem was the author fails to tell us how Leah feels. She does some crying when her father dies and the book tells us so.. but what is going on in her head?? She runs out and loses her virginity to a man she meets in a casino. A man she has had dinner with maybe two times (book implies there was more but does not tell us specifically) professes his love and proposes marriage. Yet another man approaches her on a train and begins correspondence with her. Again, and this is the last time I say it, the author does not tell the readers what Leah thinks of these men or feels at any of these moments. Odd to say the least. Basically, the story is told in a cold way, like the author is simply watching this from afar and telling us about it. You don't feel as tho you are there or involved in the story and you don't get to know Leah, the heroine.

5.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing debut!, April 2, 2010

By 

J. Danielson "jd11757" (austin, texas United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Fat Man's Daughter (Paperback)

I read this book a few years ago, and found it very interesting. Very moody and atmospheric. I also enjoyed the sequel and was hoping for a third book in the series.