The Last Rose of Shanghai: A Novel

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I was totally captivated for the first 20%. I loved the writing, it was metaphorical but not too much that it detracts from the story. What felt a little less authentic was the relationship of Aiyi and Ernest. One moment, they’re ready to spend together forever. But by the end of the next chapter, it’s “We’re too different, it’ll never work.” Often, stories of struggle are written from the point of view of middle class or impoverished characters. Aiyi being rich gives us an angle not often seen in historical fiction: that of a wealthy young heiress who does her best to be independent despite the constraints of her time and location, and at the same time, being proud of her financial status and beauty.

The best of the Shanghai-set novels by China’s leftwing realist writers of the 1930s – who also included Lu Xun and Ba Jin – which accentuated the harsh and often brutal capitalist face of the city and offered an intimate portrait of working-class life. My new novel: A WWII-novel of love and redemption between a Chinese nightclub owner and a Jewish refugee set in Shanghai, to be released on November 1st, 2021. One of the chapters contains a few paragraphs in excruciating detail about Japanese torture of prisoners; this is very gruesome to read. What bugs me is that this sequence has absolutely no bearing on the main plot. It's just that one character goes to that location, we get a few paragraphs of horrifying information, and the character is out. What was the point of that segment? Just to create some kind of impact of the brutality? It felt so out of place! The book is an alternating narrative. Half of it is first person, half third person. The first person narration comes from Aiyi Shao, a young woman who owns a jazz club in Shanghai. The third person parts involve Ernest Riesmann, a Jewish refugee who’s come to Shanghai with his younger sister to escape persecution in Nazi Germany.Aiyi Shao is a young heiress and the owner of a formerly popular and glamorous Shanghai nightclub. Ernest Reismann is a penniless Jewish refugee driven out of Germany, an outsider searching for shelter in a city wary of strangers. He loses nearly all hope until he crosses paths with Aiyi. When she hires Ernest to play piano at her club, her defiance of custom causes a sensation. His instant fame makes Aiyi’s club once again the hottest spot in Shanghai. Soon they realize they share more than a passion for jazz - but their differences seem insurmountable, and Aiyi is engaged to another man. Weina Dai Randel's poignant, sweeping love story paints a vibrant portrait of a little-known slice of World War II history. Not to be missed!" - Kate Quinn

This book is my favorite kind of historical fiction – an engrossing story that also opens my eyes to a piece of history I wasn’t familiar with. The story is set in Shanghai under Japanese occupation during WWII and is told from the alternating points of view of Aiyi and Ernest. Aiyi is a young Chinese heiress with a love for jazz who owns one of Shanghai’s most popular nightclubs (she is quite the entrepreneur for her day!). Ernest is a penniless Jewish refugee from Germany searching for shelter in Shanghai. The two are brought together through music, and a great story of love, survival, and redemption unfolds.Randel, who sat down for a Q&A about The Last Rose in Shanghai, shared with China Daily everything from what inspired the novel to how she approached her research to ensure authenticity.