Shanghai Girls
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Janet Song
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By:
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Lisa See
About this listen
Number-one New York Times best-seller.
“A gifted writer...explores the bonds of sisterhood while powerfully evoking the often nightmarish American immigrant experience.” (USA Today)
In 1937, Shanghai is the Paris of Asia, a city of great wealth and glamour, the home of millionaires and beggars, gangsters and gamblers, patriots and revolutionaries, artists and warlords. Thanks to the financial security and material comforts provided by their father’s prosperous rickshaw business, 21-year-old Pearl Chin and her younger sister, May, are having the time of their lives. Though both sisters wave off authority and tradition, they couldn’t be more different: Pearl is a dragon sign, strong and stubborn, while May is a true sheep, adorable and placid. Both are beautiful, modern, and carefree...until the day their father tells them he has gambled away their wealth and that in order to repay his debts, he must sell the girls as wives to suitors who have traveled from California to find Chinese brides.
As Japanese bombs fall on their beloved city, Pearl and May set out on the journey of a lifetime, one that will take them through the Chinese countryside, in and out of the clutch of brutal soldiers, and across the Pacific to the shores of America.
In Los Angeles, they begin a fresh chapter, trying to find love with the strangers they have married, brushing against the seduction of Hollywood, and striving to embrace American life even as they fight against discrimination, brave communist witch hunts, and find themselves hemmed in by Chinatown’s old ways and rules.
At its heart, Shanghai Girls is a story of sisters: Pearl and May are inseparable best friends who share hopes, dreams, and a deep connection, but like sisters everywhere, they also harbor petty jealousies and rivalries. They love each other, but each knows exactly where to drive the knife to hurt the other the most.
Along the way, they face terrible sacrifices, make impossible choices, and confront a devastating, life-changing secret, but through it all the two heroines of this astounding new novel hold fast to who they are: Shanghai girls.
Praise for Shanghai Girls:
“A buoyant and lustrous paean to the bonds of sisterhood.” (Booklist)
“A rich work...as compulsively readable as it is an enlightening journey.” (Denver Post)
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Critic reviews
"A buoyant and lustrous paean to the bonds of sisterhood." (Booklist)
“See is a gifted writer, and in Shanghai Girls she again explores the bonds of sisterhood while powerfully evoking the often nightmarish American immigrant experience.” (USA Today)
“A rich work... as compulsively readable as it is an enlightening journey.” (Denver Post)
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- Stories
- By: Mia Alvar
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu, Don Castro
- Length: 13 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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These nine globe-trotting, unforgettable stories from Mia Alvar, a remarkable new literary talent, vividly give voice to the women and men of the Filipino diaspora. Here are exiles, emigrants, and wanderers uprooting their families from the Philippines to begin new lives in the Middle East, the United States, and elsewhere - and sometimes turning back again.
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My introduction to Filipino literature and culture
- By Amazon Customer on 03-28-16
By: Mia Alvar
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The Star Side of Bird Hill
- By: Naomi Jackson
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Two sisters, ages 10 and 16, are exiled from Brooklyn to Bird Hill in Barbados, after their mother can no longer care for them. The young Phaedra and her older sister, Dionne, live, for the summer of 1989, with their grandmother, Hyacinth, a midwife and practitioner of the local spiritual practice of obeah. Dionne spends the summer in search of love, testing her grandmother's limits, and wanting to go home. Phaedra explores Bird Hill, where her family has lived for generations.
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My absolute favorite book of all time
- By Eme on 07-16-15
By: Naomi Jackson
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Saints for All Occasions
- A Novel
- By: J. Courtney Sullivan
- Narrated by: Susan Denaker
- Length: 15 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Nora and Theresa Flynn are 21 and 17 when they leave their small village in Ireland and journey to America. Nora is the responsible sister; she's shy and serious and engaged to a man she isn't sure that she loves. Theresa is gregarious; she is thrilled by their new life in Boston and besotted with the fashionable dresses and dance halls on Dudley Street. But when Theresa ends up pregnant, Nora is forced to come up with a plan - a decision with repercussions they are both far too young to understand.
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The narration ruined it
- By Janis Reynolds on 06-12-17
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How to Be an American Housewife
- A Novel
- By: Margaret Dilloway
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington, Emily Durante
- Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
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How to Be an American Housewife is a novel about mothers and daughters and the pull of tradition. It tells the story of Shoko, a Japanese woman who married an American GI, and her grown daughter, Sue, a divorced mother whose life as an American housewife hasn't been what she'd expected. When illness prevents Shoko from traveling to Japan, she asks Sue to go in her place. The trip reveals family secrets that change their lives in dramatic and unforeseen ways.
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big disappointment
- By Kirsten on 04-12-12
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I'm Supposed to Protect You from All This
- A Memoir
- By: Nadja Spiegelman
- Narrated by: Nadja Spiegelman
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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For a long time, Nadja Spiegelman believed her mother was a fairy. More than her famous father, Maus creator Art Spiegelman, and even more than most mothers, hers - French-born New Yorker art director Françoise Mouly - exerted a force over reality that was both dazzling and daunting. As Nadja's body changed and "began to whisper to the adults around me in a language I did not understand", their relationship grew tense.
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Aweful
- By Haley Abreu on 07-05-17
By: Nadja Spiegelman
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Honor
- By: Elif Shafak
- Narrated by: Mozhan Marno, Piter Marik
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
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An honor killing shatters and transforms the lives of Turkish immigrants in 1970s London. Internationally best-selling Turkish author Elif Shafak’s new novel is a dramatic tale of families, love, and misunderstandings that follows the destinies of twin sisters born in a Kurdish village. While Jamila stays to become a midwife, Pembe follows her Turkish husband, Adem, to London, where they hope to make new lives for themselves and their children. In London, they face a choice: stay loyal to the old traditions or try their best to fit in.
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Complex but Compelling
- By Cariola on 04-14-13
By: Elif Shafak
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Caramelo
- By: Sandra Cisneros
- Narrated by: Sandra Cisneros
- Length: 15 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Lala Reyes’ grandmother is descended from a family of renowned rebozo, or shawl-makers. The striped (caramelo) is the most beautiful of all, and the one that makes its way, like the family history it has come to represent, into Lala’s possession. The novel opens with the Reyes’ annual car trip - a caravan overflowing with children, laughter, and quarrels - from Chicago to “the other side”, Mexico City. It is there, each year, that Lala hears her family’s stories, separating the truth from the “healthy lies” that have ricocheted from one generation to the next.
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Love, family, history, and fantasy, Caramelo
- By Michele on 08-07-20
By: Sandra Cisneros
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Modern Girls
- By: Jennifer S. Brown
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Wiley
- Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1935, Dottie Krasinsky is the epitome of the modern girl. A bookkeeper in midtown Manhattan, Dottie steals kisses from her steady beau, meets her girlfriends for drinks, and eyes the latest fashions. Yet at heart, she is a dutiful daughter, living with her Yiddish-speaking parents on the Lower East Side. So when, after a single careless night, she finds herself in a family way by a charismatic but unsuitable man, she is desperate: unwed, unsure, and running out of options.
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Super annoying voiceover
- By Amazon Customer on 04-25-17
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Diamond Head
- A Novel
- By: Cecily Wong
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu, Samantha Chen, Angela Lin, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Told through the eyes of the Leongs' secret-keeping daughters and wives and spanning the Boxer Rebellion to Pearl Harbor to 1960s Hawaii, Diamond Head is a breathtakingly powerful tale of tragic love, shocking lies, poignant compromise, aching loss, heroic acts of sacrifice, and miraculous hope.
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.
- By Gina on 09-06-15
By: Cecily Wong
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Secrets of a Charmed Life
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Alana Kerr Collins
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Current day, Oxford, England. Young American scholar Kendra Van Zant, eager to pursue her vision of a perfect life, interviews Isabel McFarland just when the elderly woman is ready to give up secrets about the war that she has kept for decades...beginning with who she really is. What Kendra receives from Isabel is both a gift and a burden--one that will test her convictions and her heart.
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Rare 5-Star Across the Board!
- By Imamomof4 on 06-14-15
By: Susan Meissner
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Great story...awful narration
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Another beautiful historical fiction!
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BUY THIS VERSION (Release Date 01–03-22)
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China, 1937: When Japanese bombs begin falling on the city of Nanking, 19-year-old Hu Lian and her classmates at Minghua University are ordered to flee. Lian and a convoy of more than 100 students, faculty, and staff must walk 1,000 miles to the safety of China’s western provinces, a journey marred by hunger, cold, and the constant threat of aerial attack. And it is not just the student refugees who are at risk: Lian and her classmates have been entrusted with a priceless treasure, a 500-year-old collection of myths and folklore known as the Library of Legends.
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Rules for Virgins
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Loved it - oh so briefly!
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In a voice both haunting and startlingly immediate, Nitta Sayuri describes her life as a geisha. Taken from her home at the age of nine, she is sold into slavery to a renowned geisha house. Witness her transformation as you enter a world where appearances are paramount, virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder, women beguile powerful men, and love is scorned as illusion.
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Perfect ---- in every way
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Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
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Lily is haunted by memories of who she once was, and of a person, long gone, who defined her existence. She has nothing but time now, as she recounts the tale of Snow Flower and asks the gods for forgiveness.
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So so
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The Kitchen God's Wife
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For decades — in China and in San Francisco — Winnie Louie and Helen Kwong have kept each other's confidences, but those secrets are about to be revealed. Convinced that she is dying, Helen decides to celebrate the Chinese New Year by unburdening herself of hidden truths — not only hers, but those of Winnie and of Winnie's daughter, Pearl.
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Holds your attention through out
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By: Amy Tan
What listeners say about Shanghai Girls
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Alison
- 09-20-14
Something's Missing
First, let me confess: I'm a big fan of See's other novels, "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" and "Peony In Love." So I approached this book with high expectations, thinking it would deliver something along the same lines as those other books. It started out strong - showing us two beautiful and privileged girls in a Shanghai that was on the cusp of war. I wanted to spend more time in that setting, really getting a sense of what Shanghai life would've been like. Instead, we're transported to the United States, where the sisters immigrate to flee the war. This book feels like walking into a shrinking tunnel - what starts with possibilities becomes dark, depressing and limited. I think it's intended to showcase the love between two sisters, but I spent a good part of the book wanting to shake one of them for her selfishness and the other one for her blind love.
If you haven't read a See book before, don't start with this one because I worry you'll forgo her other works as a result. And that would be a shame.
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2 people found this helpful
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Story
- kim
- 11-29-11
A slow mover
Over all I found the book to be well written, if not a bit slow. While the story has many peaks and valleys the tone of the book is almost a bit too even; taking from the high moments and the low.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Terri
- 08-14-22
Great writing just not very entertaining
The story was extremely depressing. It may have been realistic just not an enjoyable story. The dialogue was good and the performance was well done.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Diane
- 07-31-12
Great read!
What did you love best about Shanghai Girls?
The characters are drawn so well so you come to care about them and their story.
What did you like best about this story?
You learn so much about the real life history of what it was like for Chinese immigrants to the U.S. at the time around World War II and how they niched out a life for themselves in a completely new world and culture.
What about Janet Song’s performance did you like?
Jane Song makes the story come to life with her excellent reading.
Who was the most memorable character of Shanghai Girls and why?
The main characters were the girls, but I liked the character of Sam, a man who worked his way up from nothing and took responsibility for his family.
Any additional comments?
This is a very engaging novel. Excellent!
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Overall
- Lori
- 02-22-11
Nice Story.. Narrator is monotonous.
Listened for book club and found myself wanting to skip forward several times. The main character is pretty whiny and grates on the nerves (despite the narrator's strangely monotone diction). A good story all around but I just found myself really trying to push through it sometimes.
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- Jojo
- 09-23-18
The story will swallow u in from get go! Loved it!
This story of two sisters and their journey will swallow you in from the start. I found myself laughing, smiling, angry, and crying at times. One of my favorite books from Lisa See. The narrator Janet Song is fantastic in giving a voice to each of the characters. I loved how she narrated the story. Can't wait to listen to the next book of Joy's journey in search of her real father.
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- Suzanne Coralynne Hunter
- 12-28-17
LOVED IT!
What made the experience of listening to Shanghai Girls the most enjoyable?
Wonderfully written, with a rich historical background, the characters are captivating. The plot was unpredictable and complex. Be careful when you choose to read this because you might not be able to get anything else done until you're finished with it.
What was one of the most memorable moments of Shanghai Girls?
There are several plot twists and I'm not giving anything away.
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- Amazon Customer
- 06-30-20
Okay
I only gave it an okay because the sisters wind and were ungrateful. 8 hours of that was too much
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- Deborah
- 01-23-18
Inspired with insight!
Love the narration and learning a piece of Chinese history I know little about. The story itself was well told but I was sad that after so much telling, it ended without closure.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Patricia B Tripoli
- 06-12-15
Drags a Bit But Good
I do enjoy the genre of the Chinese culture. Lisa See is a proven story teller, as I enjoyed other of her writings. The story of these two sisters travels from a spoiled life in Shanghai to one of struggle in America. There is much that happens between those locations that entertain as well as educate.
My problem is these two sisters have a very different perspective on their lives. I got rather bored hearing repeatedly how one was angered by the other and then turns to understand or protect her. And in the end there is a large explosion again, that still has no real bearing as their love for one another keeps them going.
Narration is excellent. Twists and turns are engaging. Characters are real and you will love them all.
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