The Shanghai Wife is the debut historical novel of Emma Harcourt who says in the Author’s Note prefacing the novel that this is fiction inspired by her grandmother’s story.
Set in Shanghai in 1925, we are transported to a time and place far from anything any of us could comprehend today.
Annie Brand leaves country Australia for Shanghai with her new husband where they journey up the Yangtze and it’s all a great adventure until her husband sends Annie back to Shanghai, putting a rather large hole in her freedom.
Annie finds herself in the International Settlement, living alone and suffocated by the exclusive social scene. She is drawn into the completely different world that is the real Shanghai, seeing the world from the perspective of the local people, including the servants working at her husband’s club.
Annie is curious and new to this world, she doesn’t understand the dangers and the complexities at play, she finds herself caught up in intrigue, conspiracy and passion that she was not prepared for nor could she see the far-reaching consequences.
This book is beautifully presented, with flowers to begin each chapter and a glorious cover; a premise that intrigues me and a promise of exotic and lyrical prose.
Thanks to HQ Fiction 20 of our Beauty and Lace Club Members will be reading The Shanghai Wife so please be aware there may be spoilers in the comments below.
I devour books, vampires and supernatural creatures are my genre of choice but over the past couple of years, I have broadened my horizons considerably. In a nutshell – I love to write! I love interacting with a diverse range of artists to bring you interviews. Perhaps we were perfect before – I LOVE WORDS!
Turn back the clock to a time where there was social etiquette that was to be followed. Annie had left Australia for a better life, falling in love with a boatman and moving to Shanghai. This is in the time where there was a large international presence in the city with designated international area.
Their life together starts out on a journey up the Yangtse river, on his boat but when the threat of pirates get too great, her husband sends Annie back to Shanghai to wait for his return and join in the social events held there.
Annie isn’t quite as well groomed or in the belief that she is of a better people than the Chinese like some, most, in the international district & club. She tries to fit in but would prefer to find the real Shanghai, understand exactly what is going on in the city surrounding her, not just the news that is published and adjusted to suit the course of the international governing authorities. Little does she realise that her passions and interests and the want to help the unfortunate Chinese that are swept into the gang culture will lead to such changes in her life.
Its got it all, romance, politics, mystery, controversy, forbidden love and death. A great read, travel back to Shanghai in the 1920s and enjoy! Thanks for giving the opportunity
Emma Harcourt’s The Shanghai Wife is set in of course…Shanghai. Its the 1920’s and Australian Born Annie is with her husband in Shanghai. Her husband is often away from home for work which leaves Annie to explore and learn about this new culture all on her own. She struggles often with the prejudice of the rich white people and the way they treat the locals as second class citizens. She refuses to stoop to those levels and treats all the locals as equals. This earns her a certain respect from the locals and slowly she gets to know some of them and become what she classes as friends much to the disdain of many of the other wives. Annie wants to learn more about the locals and forms a friendship with a local named Chow. Chow takes her and a friend of hers to parts of Shanghai that she otherwise would not have seen. Over time she finds that life for the locals is much more complicated then she could have expected and sometimes her attempts to help can lead to disaster.
There is heartache and romance a plenty. This is a great book and also offers the opportunity to learn a little about the city of Shanghai during the 1920’s and the political climate of the time.
I really enjoyed this story of Annie’s life and would love to think that perhaps in time there will be a second book.
The Shanghai Wife by Emma Harcourt is set in Shanghai in the 1920’s.
Annie Brand is Australian and wants to leave behind her loneliness and unhappy life of country Australia so makes the decision to catch a ship which is bound for Shanghai. She meets her husband to be and they marry, but he is away for work for long periods as a ship’s captain working on the Yangtze. He takes Annie on an adventure on the ship but as they travel further up the Yangtze her husband fears the pirates that they may find and thus sends Annie back to Shanghai, which she is not happy about, and her freedom comes to an abrupt halt. She then must fit into the life of a supposed lady and join in with the Club ladies, and the social scene. Annie does not really enjoy this type of lifestyle as many of these Club ladies treat the locals as second class citizens. Annie does not want to treat the locals any differently as she believes they are all equals. This earns her respect from the locals, and she also wants to learn more about their way of life. She meets and befriends a local named Chow. Chow takes Annie and a friend of Annie’s to parts of Shanghai that you would not normally go to. She finds that life for the locals is not easy and learns that she needs to be careful what and how she tries to help them, sometimes with dire circumstances.
Unfortunately, Annie’s husband dies, and her whole life is torn apart. Chow becomes a closer friend, but Annie does not know or understand what lies ahead for her. This is a world of intrigue and conspiracy. Annie goes through much heartache and romance and eventually leaves Shanghai once again to find herself.
The Shanghai Wife is a great read and opened my eyes to some history of the political happenings and way of life in Shanghai in the 1920’s and it was interesting to note that it was inspired by the author’s grandmother’s story.
Sorry I didn’t post earlier I realized I wrote the review but forgot to post it!!! How silly of me!
The book is set in Shanghai during the 1920’s… I know who would have thought Shanghai with that title lol
It follows Annie how leaves Australia behind to follow her husband and his work on the Yangtze, when her husband dies everything she thought she knew is turned on its head and she is left in a strange country trying to pick up the pieces
It was interesting to read about the political happenings in Shanghai during that period. Ive read another book that touched on political issues across China particularly Shanghai in the early 1900’s but I found this book to throw more light on what was actually happening.
This book has everything you need! Romance, politics, grief and a touch of mystery. I loved it!
This book will fly off the shelf with its beautiful cover and gold spine, however overall it left me wanting more. More of the story between Annie and the captain, more about Natalia, more about the final dramatic twist and more history around early 20th century Shanghai and the British Imperialists that dominated so much of the world at the time. I would read this author again but would hope for a more detailed read to fully engross me in the story and to take me back to this fascinating era.
Firstly can we talk about the cover art… Just stunning. It would absolutely grab my attention if I saw it in a bookshop.
Now the important bit, the Story. A really interesting book about Annie, an Australian living in Asian in the 1920s. She finds herself completely out of her depth and wrapt up in things she just does not understand. I found the story fascinating and the descriptive text made me yearn to get on a plane and visit again. I enjoyed the twists in the tale and at times I thought i could predict what would happen and other times I was completely shocked.
I really enjoyed this book and look forward to the next book by Emma Harcourt.
At the commencement of The Shanghai Wife, we join Annie and her husband Captain Alec Brand aboard a working river boat sailing the Yangtse River in China. Annie is very comfortable in the presence of her husband, but for her own safety is sent back to Shanghai to life in the International Settlement and await his return. Annie is not one to easily conform to the restrictive lifestyle and conformist views of the ladies of the International Settlements’ exclusive social scene, and it is not long before she bucks trends and befriends the hired help; Chinese folk who are employed to serve the Europeans, those who are apparently of higher social standing. Friendships form and Annie is eager to experience Shanghai as the locals see it. This introduces her to a world of wonder but also brings with it danger and devastation.
I found the final storyline to be quite upsetting and a surprising twist as I couldn’t understand the thoughts of Annie and the decisions she had made. However, I was particularly taken with the detailed events the author was able to portray. The descriptions of persons, places and emotions enabled me to clearly imagine what the character Annie was going through. I was interested to learn that the story in this book is inspired by the story of the authors grandmother, I can only imagine what an interesting and life she led.
Thank you to Emma Harcourt for writing this lovely book, and to HQ Fiction and Beauty and Lace Book Club for the opportunity to read this very interesting story.
Annie flees from her lonely past in Australia to China with her husband Alec. Annie enjoys life on the river with her ship captain husband, but is sent back to the safety of the International Settlement in Shanghai. She finds the settlement stifling and oppressive, and befriends the local Chinese servants and explores the real Shanghai. However, Shanghai in the 1920’s, while under white Imperialist rule, is a dangerous place with simmering political tensions. The death of her husband, a forbidden love affair and a surprising plot twist had me enthralled until the end.
The cover art of this book is beautiful, and I liked the continuation of this within the book on the chapter pages. The writing is descriptive and conveys the characters, scenery and emotions within the book so well. I don’t know much about China in the 1920’s, so it was interesting to learn about it with the storyline set around historical events from that time through the perspective of a young and intrepid Australian woman. I loved that the story is inspired by Emma Harcourt’s grandmother’s experiences of living in China.
Thank you for allowing me to read and review Emma’s debut novel, I highly recommend it!
The Shanghai Wife by Emma Harcourt and published by Harlequin Books, begins with its naive and innocent protagonist Annie, setting off on the adventure of her life.
Far away from all that is familiar, Annie has fled her father’s farm in country NSW for a new life in the exotic, politically tense world of Shanghai, China in the 1920’s.
Annie is from the start full of curiosity and rushes into situations without fully understanding the implications. The saying “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread” comes to mind on more than one occasion! Still Annie is a warm character who tries to be sympathetic to her Chinese host country… Her run ins with the suffocating formality of the gossipy and culturally condescending ladies at the exclusive Shanghai Maritime Club, fuel her appetite to experience the ‘real’ China.
However Annie soon finds that while Shanghai is a thriving and exciting port city, it is full of tension with the animosity between wealthy foreigners and the starving Chinese often breaking out into armed fights and thuggery. Naive Annie unwittingly soon becomes mixed up in Shanghai’s very complicated and dangerous underworld of gangs, opium dens and communist threats.
The storyline in The Shanghai Wife is fairly simple with some quite ‘staged’ outcomes but Annie herself is quite endearing and there are enough small twists to keep you reading. On the whole an enjoyable book.
Thank you for selecting me to read the Shanghai Wife by Emma Harcourt, the cover is amazing,
Annie Brand has left Australia and travels to China where her husband is a captain that travels the Yangtze River, the river is a dangerous place so her husband Alec sends her to the International Settlement in Shanghai where she waits for him, ( no spoilers )
Annie really doesn’t fit in at the settlement and does not like the attitudes towards the local people from the others who live in the settlement,
Annie does form a friendship with Chow who shows her another side to Shanghai which can be a dangerous mysterious place
This is a wonderful story that will take readers to another time / place
I throughly enjoyed reading this book