Kirsty Manning

This story is sure to linger in your heart well beyond the reading of the last page. Beautifully written, Manning has given us a story of survival in the hardest of times, the strength of a friendship among three women (Romy, Li, and Nina), the courage of everyday people, and a love so strong one is willing to sacrifice her own dreams and desires.

Historical fiction at its finest, this is a WWII tale few people are aware of – a tale of Jews trying to flee Europe seeking safety elsewhere, show more but denied visas by nations around the world. However, at the time China did not require visas and took in over 20,000 Jewish refugees. While life was comfortable there for a while it all changed with the bombing of Pearl Harbor and Japan’s invasion of China. Told in dual timelines we first follow 12-year-old Romy Bernfeld as she flees Austria in 1938, fights to survive in Shanghai while forming an incredibly strong relationship with fellow refugee Nina and Chinese Li and her brother Jian, and settles in Australia where at the age of 90 she becomes a widow. The other timeline is that of Alexandra Laird, Romy’s granddaughter who traces her grandparents’ lives back to Shanghai and uncovers the secrets about her mother Sophia who died when Alexandra was very young. Alexandra has only an old photo of two young girls, an adoption certificate, and a beautiful jade necklace with which to begin her search.

I especially enjoyed this story as I was able to visit the historic Hongkou District in search of the old Jewish section when I visited Shanghai a few years ago. Through Manning’s descriptions I was able to easily envision both the squalor of Shanghai in Romy’s time and the opulence of Alexandra’s modern Shanghai. The characters are beautifully developed over time, and the reader is exposed to the horrors encountered in their lives, the moments of joy, the heart-wrenching grief, and the love found in the worst of times. The details are exquisite and I highly recommend you do internet image searches on the International Settlement in Shanghai in the 1930s and on the gorgeous Suzhou Gardens.

Pure perfection!

Thank you to William Morrow Books, NetGalley, and Library Love Fest for the advance copy to review. All opinions are purely mine. show less

The Jade Lily is a dual time-line narrative.

1938 Vienna, Austria – 11 year old Romy and her parents flee to Shanghai after one of her brothers is shot by German soldiers and the other is herded away with other young Jewish men. On the three month trip to Shanghai by boat, Romy meets Nina and they become firm friends. Their lives take very different paths but bonded by the unspeakable events of war they remain firm friends for life.

2016 Melbourne, Australia – 36 year old Alexandra has show more rushed home from England to be by her dying grandfather’s side, leaving behind a broken romance. Her Grandmother, Romy, is stoic and strong and with lifelong friend Nina by her side she goes about her business without a fuss. This stoic, strong attitude is so endearing and understandable from the women that have been through countless injustices throughout their life and have learned to keep going and do whatever you can to survive through these adversities with no complaint.

Alexandra’s parents died in a car accident when she was young and she was brought up by her grandparents. She knows that her mother Sophia was adopted by Romy and Wilhelm. There is much secrecy around Sophia’s adoption and whenever Alexandra brought it up with her grandparents she could see they were genuinely distressed, so she let the matter drop. Alexandra’s story is one of trying to find out who she is, what makes her the way she is, her ancestry. Armed with nothing but an old photo, her mother’s adoption certificate, an old diary and a jade necklace she accepts a job offer in Shanghai and starts to ask questions.
When Alexandra visited the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum and saw her great grandparents’ and grandmother’s names engraved on the wall I could almost feel the goosebumps myself. How surreal this moment must have been!

The Jade Lily is an atmospheric tale of the atrocities of war and the stoic, strong women that endured it.
Manning has written a heart-felt historical fiction detailing the hardships endured by the displaced and the unfailing spirit of these people to keep going when all seems lost.
A large focus throughout the story is the blending of cultures as refugees from different countries introduce their cultures and foods into Shanghai. Traditional Chinese medicine is also explored with the healing power and well-being benefits of different blends of herbs and acupuncture.
Shanghai was the star of this story! The people, the food, the customs, the countryside, the refugees and the architecture all feature prominently, then and now.

”...in this swirling metropolis where decadence and depravity skipped hand in hand and it seemed rules were meant to be broken”

The Jade Lily is an intensively researched story that conveys the shocking cruelties endured by the displaced during the war and one woman’s journey of strength and love as she comes of age during these trying times. The vivid descriptions are a sensual feast of odours, flavours, sounds and sights from the streets of Shanghai.

If you read Historical Fiction this is one book you must add to your shelf.

Content: the horrors of war.

*I received an uncorrected proof copy from the publisher show less

This is historical fiction at its best. It’s a story of WWII and how people adjust and cope as the war changed and sometimes destroyed their lives, but this story is from a different perspective, in a different setting, than what we’re generally used to, and it’s a story you won’t soon forget.

As the Nazis are beginning to persecute the Jews in Vienna, fourteen year-old Romy and her parents escape to Shanghai but not before one of her brothers is killed in the street and the other show more taken to a concentration camp. Life in Shanghai is unlike anything they have ever experienced or expected to experience, but they are lucky to be alive and make friends like Li and Jian and their parents, and Wilhelm, another relocated Austrian Jew, find jobs and live a fairly prosperous, if different, life in their new home. At least for a while. But the tentacles of the war reach even Shanghai.

The story begins in the present with Alexandra, Romy’s granddaughter, returning home to Melbourne, Australia for her grandfather’s funeral. While there she gets a hint of Romy’s former life in Shanghai and of that of her mother, born in Shanghai and adopted by Romy and Wilhelm. Alexandra will be living in Shanghai for a few months for her job and resolves to find out all she can about her birth mother.

The pacing of The Song of the Jade Lily is perfect. Just when you think you can’t stand the suspense any longer and your fear is growing for Romy and Li and their families, the story switches to the present, but then the suspense builds there for the secrets that seem to be just out of Alexandra’s reach. So many well-developed characters, such a beautifully multilayered story – and such sadness but in the end strength and bravery and hope, and love.

The Song of the Jade Lily is filled with rich detail. I learned many things about WWII that I never knew had happened. The information about historical events and medical practices in Shanghai is fascinating and the detail enriches the story rather than suffocating it. Vienna, Shanghai and Melbourne are very different, but author Kirsty Manning’s description of each setting is full and lush. Each time the story changed location I felt as if I was magically transported.

This is a book you must read. It will make you laugh and cry and stay with you a long time. Thanks to William Morrow/Harper Collins Publishers for an advance copy of The Song of the Jade Lily in exchange for an honest review. I thoroughly enjoyed it, highly recommend it, and will be looking for other books by Kirsty Manning to add to my library. show less

The Song of the Jade Lily is the story of Jewish refugees in Shanghai in WWII. It goes back and forth between the friendship between a local girl and a Jewish refugee in WWII Shanghai, and 2016, when a granddaughter returns to dig up family secrets. It has everything you want from a historical novel -- excellent storytelling, characters to worry over, and information about a little-known episode in history. This would make a great book club pick.