Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

      In Shanghai Girls Lisa See takes readers farther ahead in time to 1937 China. At this time Shanghai was the "Paris of Asia". Pearl and her younger sister, May, have glamorous lifestyles. They go to parties, have great clothes, and pose for artists. Their life is wonderful until their father announces that he has gambled away their savings. To help pay back his debts he sells his daughters as wives to Chinese men from Los Angeles. When it seems like things couldn't get worse, a war breaks out. Now the sisters must travel alone as refugees to America facing many obstacles and making many sacrifices. Once in America they seek out their husbands and try to build a new life in San Fransisco as immigrants.

I have become a fan of Lisa See's novels. In Peony in Love and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, See writes about the struggles of Chinese women in the 17th and 19th centuries. Shanghai Girls explores the lives of women in the 1900's bringing to light different and new obstacles. While marriage is still a main theme it has a much different approach.

Shanghai Girls was a fast read and the end left an opening for a sequel. I give this book a Thumbs Up! 

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