When I first realized that Shanghailanders, Juli Min’s remarkable debut novel, was told in reverse, moving backward from 2040 to 2014, the main question on my mind was, why? . . . I wondered, are the rewards of Min’s unusual structure worth [it]? . . . My answer . . . would be a resounding yes. . . . Having knowledge of these characters’ futures before we know about their past makes stumbling on their bygone days all the more touching.”—Jean Kwok, New York Times Book Review
“[An] audacious debut . . . Min centers the cosmopolitan character of Shanghai as a magnet for ambitious outsiders, something she clearly understands. . . . As the novel moves further back in time, the stories deepen, and Min highlights key moments in the family’s collective history, spanning decades and continents, from China to Japan, France and the United States. . . . Min is a talented writer whose debut shows much promise. Her own future, at least, appears bright.”—Washington Post
“A thrilling, futuristic family drama that captures the joys, disappointments, and inside jokes of one Shanghai family in reverse chronological order. . . . By giving readers the gift of hindsight, Min shows how one enigmatic family falls apart and comes back together over several decades.”—Time, “14 New Books You Should Read in May”
“Sophisticated and affecting . . . Unspooling backward from an imagined 2040 to 2014, this novel shows a Chinese family coping with 21st-century pressures and pleasures across three continents.”—Los Angeles Times, “10 Books to Add to Your Reading List in May”
“With a cosmopolitan scope that takes readers from Shanghai, to Paris, to Boston, Shanghailanders is about love and family with a dash of magical realism. There’s something here for every reader.”—B&N Reads, “Most Anticipated Debuts 2024”
“Intriguing . . . An unusual and immersive reading experience . . . The prose and characterizations here and throughout are assured, particularly for a debut.”—Kirkus
“Enthralling . . . Against the backdrop of Shanghai's elite circles, Min expertly takes readers on a journey backwards through time, unraveling the intricacies of the Yang family members‘ lives through their unique perspectives. . . . In her masterful storytelling, Min captures the essence of life in a rapidly changing city and world, reminding readers that even in times of uncertainty, love, longing, and resilience remain unwavering constants. With its richly drawn characters and thought-provoking themes, Min’s debut is a captivating read that will linger in the minds of readers.”—Booklist
“[An] assured debut, told in reverse chronology . . . credibly reflect[ing] the messiness of family. Min is a writer worth keeping tabs on.”—Publishers Weekly
“Min’s debut will be appreciated by readers who relish the joy of discovery and piecing information together to shape the characters and events in their own minds. It is an intriguing portrait of a fragmented family where nothing is ever quite what it seems.”—Library Journal
“Tender, atmospheric, and wholly captivating, Shanghailanders captures la douleur exquise of family through the shifting, shimmering lives of the beguiling Yang sisters and their enigmatic parents. Juli Min has established herself as a sharp chronicler of contemporary China—and of the ever-complicated matters of the heart.”—Kirstin Chen, New York Times–bestselling author of Counterfeit
“Bracing, thrilling, and breathtakingly smart, Shanghailanders is more than a spectacular debut—it offers a new way of seeing. Not just of Shanghai, but of France, Japan, America, and every last corner of its characters’ minds. Every page is a new discovery, but the book’s best is Juli Min herself. Absolutely extraordinary.”—Liam Callanan, author of When in Rome and Paris by the Book
“Shanghailanders is a wonderful and wildly smart and compelling book. If Shanghai is the future, this terrific novel knows it all. We follow a glorious cluster of characters as they trip over their own longings, in this fiction of real astuteness.”—Joan Silber, author of Improvement
“Lyrical and haunting, Shanghailanders explores the enduring mysteries of family. With its inventive structure—the years spooling in reverse, told through rotating perspectives—Juli Min movingly portrays the Yangs and their many seasons of love and loss in a metropolis that perpetually rises, falls, and emerges from the ashes. An extraordinary debut.”—Vanessa Hua, author of Forbidden City
2024-02-03
Follow an ultrarich Shanghai family backward in time from 2040 to 2014.
Min opens her intriguing novel-in-stories with “A True Shanghai Man, January 2040”: paterfamilias Leo Yang has just dropped his wife, Eko, and two older daughters, Yumi and Yoko, at the airport and is returning home on a high-speed train to teenage Kiko, the baby of the family. The older girls are returning to boarding school and college in Boston. The narrative will move forward from this moment only once, in the second story, “Rouge Allure, January 2040,” which follows Eko and the girls to Boston and then on to Paris, where French Japanese Eko grew up, then down to Nice, where Eko’s mother lives in a high-rise retirement community. From there, the stories visit earlier time periods. In “Moshi Moshi Marilyn Monroe, September 2039,” we learn that Baby Kiko, as she is called in the family, is definitely no baby anymore. “In the Time of Period Trees, September 2038” fills in a lot of detail about the relationship between Yumi and Yoko and introduces a few plot points that are clarified in stories that go even further into the past. What does it mean that Kiko “blames” Yoko for Lucy? What is the in-joke with her father behind the ball of gold string on her desk at school? Answers to questions like these create a sense of unfolding that balances the disappointment one might feel about leaving the latest versions of the Yangs, and their interesting problems, behind. Some stories focus on characters tangential to the family—their driver participates in a 2030s phenomenon called night races, and a very strong story called “The Girl of My Heart, February 2020,” touches on the pandemic and explores the life of the ayi (nanny) character we’ve heard about before she came to the Yangs. The prose and characterizations here and throughout are assured, particularly for a debut.
An unusual and immersive reading experience.
