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
