Longlisted for the 2025 ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENECE IN FICTION * TIME 100 Must-Read Books of 2024 * THE NEW YORK TIMES Editors’ Choice * PEOPLE 10 Best Debut Fiction Books of 2024
‘Thrilling’ TIME
‘Simmering with secrets and tensions’ THE NEW YORK TIMES
‘Quick-footed and captivating . . . a perfect holiday read’ MONOCLE
Leo and Eko Yang and their three daughters seems to have it all – wealth, beauty and brains; a privileged life in the world of international Shanghai, Paris and Boston. But as the children become adults and their parents celebrate twenty-five years of marriage, the Yangs are at a crossroads. What bonds still keep them together? What are the foundations of a family?
Beginning in the year 2040 and moving backward through the present to 2014, Shanghailanders takes readers into the intimacies and desires of each of the Yangs, as well as the people in their orbit – a nanny from the provinces, a private driver with a penchant for danger, and a grandmother whose memories of the past echo the present.
As we watch this changing family in their changing world, universal constants remain: love is complex and family will always be stubbornly connected by blood, secrets and longing. Along the way, Min shows how a family makes and remakes itself over the years, what unites us and slowly drives us apart.
‘Min has established herself as a sharp chronicler of contemporary China – and of the ever-complicated matters of the heart’ Kirsten Chen, author of COUNTERFEIT
‘Remarkable . . . Having knowledge of these characters’ futures before we know about their past makes stumbling on their bygone days all the more touching’ THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
‘Sophisticated and affecting’ THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
‘Elegant and crystalline’ GUARDIAN
‘Thrilling’ TIME
‘Simmering with secrets and tensions’ THE NEW YORK TIMES
‘Quick-footed and captivating . . . a perfect holiday read’ MONOCLE
Leo and Eko Yang and their three daughters seems to have it all – wealth, beauty and brains; a privileged life in the world of international Shanghai, Paris and Boston. But as the children become adults and their parents celebrate twenty-five years of marriage, the Yangs are at a crossroads. What bonds still keep them together? What are the foundations of a family?
Beginning in the year 2040 and moving backward through the present to 2014, Shanghailanders takes readers into the intimacies and desires of each of the Yangs, as well as the people in their orbit – a nanny from the provinces, a private driver with a penchant for danger, and a grandmother whose memories of the past echo the present.
As we watch this changing family in their changing world, universal constants remain: love is complex and family will always be stubbornly connected by blood, secrets and longing. Along the way, Min shows how a family makes and remakes itself over the years, what unites us and slowly drives us apart.
‘Min has established herself as a sharp chronicler of contemporary China – and of the ever-complicated matters of the heart’ Kirsten Chen, author of COUNTERFEIT
‘Remarkable . . . Having knowledge of these characters’ futures before we know about their past makes stumbling on their bygone days all the more touching’ THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
‘Sophisticated and affecting’ THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
‘Elegant and crystalline’ GUARDIAN
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Reviews
Shanghailanders is a wonderful, wildly smart and compelling book. If Shanghai is the future, this terrific novel knows it all. We follow a glorious cluster of characters as they trip over their own longings, in this fiction of real astuteness.
Bracing, thrilling, and breathtakingly smart . . . Shanghailanders offers a new way of seeing. Not just of Shanghai, but France, Japan, America, and every last corner of its characters' minds . . . Absolutely extraordinary.
Lyrical and haunting, Shanghailanders explores the enduring mysteries of family . . . Min movingly portrays the Yangs and their many seasons of love and loss in a metropolis that perpetually rises, falls, and emerges from the ashes. An extraordinary debut.
Marvellous.
Tender, atmospheric, and wholly captivating . . . Min has established herself as a sharp chronicler of contemporary China-and of the ever-complicated matters of the heart.
Readers can follow each family member throughout their life -- and discover how lucky it is to have the benefit of hindsight.
Min's remarkable debut novel . . . Having knowledge of these characters' futures before we know about their past makes stumbling on their bygone days all the more touching . . . My answer to my original question of whether this unusual storytelling structure is worthwhile would be a resounding yes.
Ambitious . . . a thrilling, futuristic family drama that captures the joys, disappointments, and inside jokes of one Shanghai family in reverse chronological order.
An unusual and immersive reading experience.
Min's debut novel is a complicated family story, told in reverse . . . a family simmering with secrets and tensions.
Min's debut will be appreciated by readers who relish the joy of discovery and piecing information together to shape the characters and events in their own minds. It is an intriguing portrait of a fragmented family where nothing is ever quite what it seems. A strong option for book groups.
[An] assured debut, told in reverse chronology . . . credibly reflect[ing] the messiness of family. Min is a writer worth keeping tabs on.
With a cosmopolitan scope that takes readers from Shanghai, to Paris, to Boston . . . There's something here for every reader.
Enthralling . . . In her masterful storytelling, Min captures the essence of life in a rapidly changing city and world . . . A captivating read that will linger in the minds of readers.
[An] audacious debut . . . Min is a talented writer whose debut shows much promise. Her own future, at least, appears bright.
Min's prose is quick-footed and captivating and the book's structure of a novel-in-stories makes it a perfect holiday read, with interlocking tales to dip into between trips to the pool.
A colourful and ambitious novel, Shanghailanders deftly unpacks the meaning of family and belonging.
Told in reverse chronological order, this bold experiment with time pays off beautifully, completely unsettling the reader's expectations. Min's prose is elegant and crystalline as it refracts the family's cruelties.
Smart, tender and lyrical - Shanghailanders never stops surprising the reader . . .