Christopher Banks spent a happy in childhood in Shanghai at the beginning of the 20th century as the son of privileged British ex patriates living in a large house supplied by the opium importer for which his father worked. He spent his days playing make-believe games with his best friend, the Japanese boy who lived next door. But then first his father, then his mother disappeared—kidnapped by ruthless Chinese criminals. An orphan, Christopher is sent to England where he grows up determined to become a famous detective like Sherlock Holmes and solve the mystery of his parents’ disappearance.

Gradually, as Christopher narrates his story—alternating between 1930s London where he lives as an adult, having fulfilled his ambition of becoming a famous detective, and his recollections of his childhood in Shanghai—the reader becomes aware that the narrator’s view of reality is skewed. Indeed, it seems that Christopher is living in a fantasy world where he believes his parents are still alive, even decades later, and that his return to Shanghai to find them will somehow avert the disastrous war brewing between the Chinese and Japanese. By the time he gets back to China, we feel like we can trust nothing that Christopher says, and that is the genius of this novel.

Christopher comes to an abrupt reckoning with the truth following a harrowing sequence in which he wends his way through a bombed-out Chinese slum, avoiding the battles going on in the streets around him while trying to locate the very house where he believes his parents are still being held. When he finally learns the truth, he returns to England defeated but still quite self-deluded.

While on the surface, When We Were Orphans is a crime novel written in the style of Arthur Conan Doyle, in actuality it is a complex psychological study of a character stranded at a traumatic point in his childhood, unable to move beyond his fantasies. ( )

I liked this book pretty well in the beginning, but it just got stupid. Christopher Banks is a totally annoying and frustrating narrator, and unfortunately you can't escape him. It starts off as an interesting personal mystery but the character loses all sense of reality and takes you with him. This premise could work for me, but Banks was just so ridiculously self-centered and deluded that I could not take him seriously or have any empathy whatsoever. The writing was good, his usual style. ( )

I picked this book up at a charity book sale two years ago for $1, the other day when I was looking for something new to read I thought it might have potential, I have never read anything else by Ishiguro. I do own The Remains of the Day but I hate starting out with a book by an author that is supposed to be really good since it makes the ones afterwards disappointing.

As soon as I started reading I found Ishiguro's storytelling pretty engaging, and the different aspects of life in Shanghai and London I always find interesting. I was developing my own ideas of what might have happened to Christopher's parents and near the end I was actually mad because I found the book to be so predictable but then WAIT! That's not what happens!

Ishiguro had everything that I look for in a really entertaining read, and I can't wait to read some more by him. ( )

Understated story of a man apparently orphaned as a child in Shanghai with his parents thought to be abducted by war lords. He is adopted by his rich English aunt and becomes a detective determined to find out what happened to his parents. He returns to Shanghai as World War II and at great personal risk finds out that the truth isn't what he expected. ( )

I loved the setting of the 1920s and 1930s in England and Shanghai. The tone of the narrator is set well, but I wanted more insight into how he works, not just his idealized memories. He's a detective, but his major cases are never described, and then his case in Shanghai is severely bungled. I hoped for more happiness in his life and more of an escape for me, and instead the reality is very cruel. ( )