The novel is the story of the 1927 Shanghai massacre as experienced by several fictional characters representing various points of view including Chinese and Russian Communists, terrorists, Western businessmen and dilettantes, and members of the factions of the Kuomintang. In addition to the multiway political strife, there is personal animosity, philosophical existential angst and betrayal. Malraux was an interesting character himself, perhaps somewhat of a self-invented con man (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/10/books/review/malraux-one-mans-fate.html), but I don't think any less of the novel for that - after all, he did write it.
Ultimately, I found the story moving (Nabokov apparently ridiculed it as melodramatic), but the text was sometimes awkward and difficult to read. It won the Prix Goncourt in 1933 and I suspect that the problem is with the translation. There is another English translation by Alastair MacDonald; it is out of print, but I recommend looking for it.
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Randomly chosen examples of these not infrequent difficulties are:
"If you don't have confidence in the International, mustn't belong to the Party." [Is there a word missing here?]

" 'Yes, Gisors, Kyoshi.(1)'
1. Kyo is an abbreviation." [Is abbreviation the correct English word to mean nickname?]
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And...a favorite quote that might be useful in the future:
"When you're through prostituting yourselves to the State, you take your cowardice for wisdom, and believe that to be a Venus de Milo all you need is to be armless..."

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I read an English translation of an early edition. If you are interested in the Communist uprising and its suppression in Shanghai in 1927 or how those things might work, then please add some stars. This seems to be very realistic historical fiction. ( )

This novel is impossible to enjoy as intended without a good deal of historical background or the benefit of a critical edition. Part Three contains particularly esoteric dialogue. That said, Malraux's prose is at its most engaging when it is abstracted, contemplative, and full of existential melancholy. ( )

Characters dealing with life and death during war.