Ten Green Bottles: The True Story of One Family's Journey from War-torn Austria to the Ghettos of Shanghai
by Vivian Jeanette Kaplan
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To Nini Karpel, growing up in Vienna during the 1920s was a romantic confection. Whether schussing down ski slopes or speaking of politics in coffee houses, she cherished the city of her birth. But in the 1930s an undercurrent of conflict and hate began to seize the former imperial capital. This struggle came to a head when Hitler took possession of neighboring Germany. Anti-Semitism, which Nini and her idealistic friends believed was impossible in the socially advanced world of Vienna, show more became widespread and virulent. The Karpel's Jewish identity suddenly made them foreigners in their own homeland. Tormented, disenfranchised, and with a broken heart, Nini and her family sought refuge in a land seven thousand miles across the world. Shanghai, China, one of the few countries accepting Jewish immigrants, became their new home and refuge. Stepping off the boat, the Karpel family found themselves in a land they could never have imagined. Shanghai presented an incongruent world of immense wealth and privilege for some and poverty for the masses, with opium dens and decadent clubs as well as rampant disease and a raging war between nations. Ten Green Bottles is the story of Nini Karpel's struggles as she told it to her daughter Vivian so many years ago. This true story depicts the fierce perseverance of one family, victims of the forces of evil, who overcame suffering of biblical proportion to survive. It was a time when ordinary people became heroes. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
A very simple, lovely book. I had not before realized that there was a Jewish settlement in Shanghai during WWII, and found this book an interesting introduction to the topic. The narration of this memoir is simple, and the plot basic, but the author's depiction of survival in the face of incredible loss is very powerful.
This book was so well-written. Kaplan provided just enough information and nothing extra, but I had a real feel for these people's lives. I also easily identified with these characters, as they were presented so well. This is one of the best books I've read about the Holocaust.
I read this a second time for a book club. I found the details of life in Shanghai very interesting, but I was less pleased with the writing than I was the first time I read it.
Recommended by Anne Baron
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Author Information
1 Work 97 Members
Vivian Jeanette Kaplan was born in Shanghai. She graduated from the University of Toronto, where she studied English, French, and Spanish. She is married and has three sons. For a number of years the family owned and ran a lakeside lodge in Muskoka, north of Toronto. For twenty years she had her own business, Vivian Kaplan Oriental Interiors
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- Members
- 97
- Popularity
- 331,081
- Reviews
- 4
- Rating
- (3.65)
- Languages
- English, German
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 5
- ASINs
- 2
