Review Wednesday – Nightfall Over Shanghai

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Art copyright, Deborah Small 2019.

Nightfall Over Shanghai is the third in Daniel Kalla’s Shanghai series. It’s the second of his Shanghai series I’ve read. Somehow, I missed the middle book (didn’t know there was one when I saw this one in the book store), though in all honesty, I didn’t miss it.

Whether Mr. Kalla’s talent in filling in missing details, or simply my willingness to jump into the story and not question some new characters owing to the strength of familiar and engaging characters, setting, and storylines, I can’t say. All I know is I found this book easier to read than the first in the series. Not because it’s any less brutal in its depiction of horrors faced by Jews and other minorities in WWII Shanghai, but because the enduring Romance and desire for love, family, compassion, and need for hope and optimism in the daily lives of those struggling to survive, softens the harsh reality, dulls the jagged edges of human cruelty with the rough rasp of genuine goodness. Flickers of white light in a miasma of hate and indifference.

There were a few spots I found myself skimming pages, though I could attribute that to eye-fatigue, and an interest in getting to the end to learn what happens. I also tend to skip ahead a paragraph or page when a character decides to do something that I know is not going to end well for them, like when Franz Adler’s fourteen-year-old daughter involves herself with a young man of questionable repute.

The story started strong – childbirth is always exciting at any time, but in the midst of a war and in extreme poverty and on the sofa in the middle of the apartment, it’s well… Riveting. The ongoing emotional tug-of-war between the two main characters, Franz Adler, and his wife, Sunny, as they seek to keep themselves and their family safe from those intent on harming them, adds a bittersweet note to the heartrending journey they travel in this story, alone, and together, seeking common ground, understanding, and Happy Ever After, in a place and time when one’s life and future balanced on the tip of madmen’s bloodied swords.

This story reminded me very much of my second novel, My Own, in its display of the enduring and changeable nature of love and romance within a heart, and a marriage. 4.5 stars.

Deborah

Bravery and faith bring both material and spiritual rewards.


~ Preston Bradley


Book Description from Daniel Kalla’s website:

Nightfall Over Shanghai by [Kalla, Daniel]

It’s 1944 and the Japanese are losing the war, but Shanghai is more dangerous than ever, particularly for the Adler family. After fleeing Nazi Europe, Dr. Franz Adler and his teenage daughter, Hannah, have adjusted to life in their strange adopted city, but they are now imprisoned in the Shanghai Ghetto for refugee Jews.

Franz is compelled to work as a surgeon for the hated Japanese military, while struggling to keep the city’s woefully undersupplied refugee hospital functioning. Meanwhile, his beloved Eurasian wife, fellow surgeon Sunny, delivers a baby boy born to a neighborhood teenager who wants nothing to do with the child; Sunny is determined to raise him as her own. When an enigmatic priest arrives at the hospital with an injured man who turns out be a downed American pilot, Sunny is recruited into a spy ring, providing crucial information to the Allies about the city’s port. Inadvertently, Hannah is drawn into the perilous operation, just as she becomes drawn to the controversial movement of Zionism and a Jewish homeland in Palestine. When the Japanese launch a major new offensive against the Chinese, Franz is forced to do the unthinkable: he is sent inland to work as a field doctor on the frontlines. There, he must contend with his tangled loyalties, aerial bombings overhead, and his uncertain feelings for a vulnerable Canadian nurse.

In 1945, American B-52s begin bombing Shanghai in strategic raids, putting thousands of Chinese citizens and refugees in grave danger. While the war seems to be winding down in the Far East, many questions remain unanswered for the Adlers. As the bombers circle ominously overhead, they must now struggle for more than simple safety. For the first time in many war-riven years, they now face the challenge of re-envisioning their lives, and the prospect of forging a hopeful path forward for the future—if they can first survive.


Daniel Kalla is a Vancouver, Canada, Emergency Room Physician, and author of ten novels. Learn more about him at: https://danielkalla.com


Permanent link to this article: https://www.deborahsmall.com/review-wednesday-nightfall-over-shanghai/

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