
The Last Rose of Shanghai
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Josh Bloomberg
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Emily Woo Zeller
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By:
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Weina Dai Randel
About this listen
In Japanese-occupied Shanghai, two people from different cultures are drawn together by fate and the freedom of music...
1940. 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.
As the war escalates, Aiyi and Ernest find themselves torn apart, and their choices between love and survival grow more desperate. In the face of overwhelming odds, a chain of events is set in motion that will change both their lives forever.
From the electrifying jazz clubs to the impoverished streets of a city under siege, The Last Rose of Shanghai is a timeless, sweeping story of love and redemption.
©2021 Weina Dai Randel. (P)2021 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“[Emily Woo] Zeller delivers the chapters told from the perspective of Aiyi, whose privileged upbringing, beauty, and good business sense are not enough to protect her from the hardships of war. [Josh] Bloomberg performs the chapters focused on Ernest, a German-Jewish refugee who arrives in the city looking for a safe haven. Zeller's comfort with Asian languages and accents and Bloomberg's with European ones underscore Aiyi's and Ernest's divergent spheres. Together the narrators build on the couple's conflicted emotions as their relationship grows from being business associates to much more.” (AudioFile Magazine)
“Fans of sweeping, dramatic WWII epics that are rich in historical detail, such as Lisa See’s Shanghai Girls or Paullina Simons’s The Bronze Horseman will be enthralled.” (Booklist)
“Weina Dai Randel’s novel deserves a place of distinction among WWII fiction.” (Historical Novel Society)
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Couldn’t finish
- By Ingrid Olsen-Young on 03-17-23
By: Weina Dai Randel
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The Master Jeweler
- A Novel
- By: Weina Dai Randel
- Narrated by: Christine Lin
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Harbin, China, 1925. Fifteen-year-old Anyu Zhang discovers a priceless Fabergé egg in the snow and returns it to the owner, Isaac Mandelburg, a fugitive and former master jeweler for Russia’s imperial palace. In gratitude, he leaves her his address in Shanghai and a promise of hospitality, forever altering her fate. A dazzling world of jewelry shrouded in secrecy and greed awaits, when later Anyu arrives at Mandelburg’s jewelry shop as an orphan.
By: Weina Dai Randel
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The Thread Collectors
- A Novel
- By: Shaunna J. Edwards, Alyson Richman
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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1863: In a small Creole cottage in New Orleans, an ingenious young Black woman named Stella embroiders intricate maps on repurposed cloth to help enslaved men flee and join the Union Army. Bound to a man who would kill her if he knew of her clandestine activities, Stella has to hide not only her efforts but her love for William, a Black soldier and a brilliant musician.
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Absolutely stunning!
- By Amazon Customer on 04-14-24
By: Shaunna J. Edwards, and others
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A Train to Moscow
- A Novel
- By: Elena Gorokhova
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Knowelden
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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In a small, provincial town behind the Iron Curtain, Sasha lives in a house full of secrets, one of which is her own dream of becoming an actress. When she leaves for Moscow to audition for drama school, she defies her mother and grandparents and abandons her first love, Andrei. Before she leaves, Sasha discovers the hidden war journal of her uncle Kolya, an artist still missing in action years after the war has ended. His pages expose the official lies and the forbidden truth of Stalin’s brutality.
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Impressive from start to finish
- By brian on 03-02-22
By: Elena Gorokhova
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The Mountains Sing
- By: Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai
- Narrated by: Quyen Ngo
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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With the epic sweep of Min Jin Lee's Pachinko and Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing and the lyrical beauty of Vaddey Ratner's In the Shadow of the Banyan, The Mountains Sing tells an enveloping, multigenerational tale of the Trần family, set against the backdrop of the Việt Nam War. Trần Diệu Lan, who was born in 1920, was forced to flee her family farm with her six children during the Land Reform as the Communist government rose in the North.
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Incredible first English language novel
- By Gregory Barbee on 03-23-20
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Paper Wife
- A Novel
- By: Laila Ibrahim
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Southern China, 1923. Desperate to secure her future, Mei Ling’s parents arrange a marriage to a widower in California. To enter the country, she must pretend to be her husband’s first wife - a paper wife. On the perilous voyage, Mei Ling takes an orphan girl named Siew under her wing. Dreams of a better life in America give Mei Ling the strength to endure the treacherous journey and detainment on Angel Island. But when she finally reaches San Francisco, she’s met with a surprise. Her husband, Chinn Kai Li, is a houseboy, not the successful merchant he led her to believe.
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Just okay..disappointed
- By Donna Smith McG on 11-03-18
By: Laila Ibrahim
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In Farleigh Field
- A Novel
- By: Rhys Bowen
- Narrated by: Gemma Dawson
- Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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World War II comes to Farleigh Place, the ancestral home of Lord Westerham and his five daughters, when a soldier with a failed parachute falls to his death on the estate. After his uniform and possessions raise suspicions, MI5 operative and family friend Ben Cresswell is covertly tasked with determining if the man is a German spy. The assignment also offers Ben the chance to be near Lord Westerham's middle daughter, Pamela, whom he furtively loves. But Pamela has her own secret.
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Entertaining and Engaging Storyline
- By RavidReader on 03-05-17
By: Rhys Bowen
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Hill of Secrets
- A Novel
- By: Galina Vromen
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Los Alamos, 1943. The US Army has gathered scientists to create the world’s first nuclear weapon. Their families, abruptly moved to the secret desert base with no explanation, have simple orders: Stand by. Make do. Above all, don’t ask questions. Christine, forced to abandon her art restoration business in New York for her husband’s career, struggles to reinvent herself and cope with his increasing aloofness. Gertie, the inquisitive teenage daughter of a German Jewish refugee physicist enlists Christine to help her unravel hidden truths and deal with parents haunted by their past.
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Not historical
- By Cindi Trunk on 10-11-24
By: Galina Vromen
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The Paper Daughters of Chinatown
- By: Heather B. Moore
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu
- Length: 13 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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When Donaldina Cameron arrives at the Occidental Mission Home for Girls in 1895, she intends to teach sewing skills to young Chinese women immigrants, but, within days, she discovers that the job is much more complicated than perfect stitches and even hems. San Francisco has a dark side, one where a powerful underground organization - the criminal tong - brings Chinese young women to America to sell them as slaves. With the help of Chinese interpreters and the Chinatown police squad, Donaldina becomes a tireless social reformer to stop the abominable slave and prostitution trade.
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Should be classified as a “Youth Fiction” book
- By J on 02-26-21
By: Heather B. Moore
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Remembering Shanghai
- A Memoir of Socialites, Scholars and Scoundrels
- By: Isabel Sun Chao, Claire Chao
- Narrated by: Rachel Yong, Claire Chao, Isabel Sun Chao
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Meticulously researched, Remembering Shanghai follows five generations, from vibrant Shanghai to the bright lights of Hong Kong. By turns harrowing and heartwarming, this vivid memoir explores identity and loss against the epic backdrop of a country in turmoil.
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touching stories of resilience and family
- By Rodger on 01-17-21
By: Isabel Sun Chao, and others
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Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop
- By: Hwang Bo-reum, Shanna Tan - translator
- Narrated by: Rosa Escoda
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
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Yeongju is burned out. With her high-flying career, demanding marriage, and busy life in Seoul, she knows she should feel successful, but all she feels is drained. Yet an abandoned dream nags at her, and in a leap of faith, she leaves her old life behind. Quitting her job and divorcing her husband, Yeongju moves to a small residential neighborhood outside the city, where she opens the Hyunam-dong Bookshop.
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Really resonated
- By Aebell on 04-18-24
By: Hwang Bo-reum, and others
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The Redhead of Auschwitz
- A True Story
- By: Nechama Birnbaum
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Rosie was always told her red hair was a curse, but she never believed it. She often dreamed what it would look like under a white veil with the man of her dreams by her side. However, her life takes a harrowing turn in 1944 when she is forced out of her home and sent to the most gruesome of places: Auschwitz. Upon arrival, Rosie’s head is shaved and along with the loss of her beautiful hair, she loses the life she once cherished.
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It’s so real…
- By Diane Findley on 07-02-22
By: Nechama Birnbaum
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The Ghost Bride
- A Novel
- By: Yangsze Choo
- Narrated by: Yangsze Choo
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Li Lan, the daughter of a genteel but bankrupt family, has few prospects. But fate intervenes when she receives an unusual proposal from the wealthy and powerful Lim family. They want her to become a ghost bride for the family's only son, who recently died under mysterious circumstances. After an ominous visit to the opulent Lim mansion, Li Lan finds herself haunted not only by her ghostly would-be suitor, but also by her desire for the Lims' handsome new heir, Tian Bai. Li Lan must uncover the Lim family's darkest secrets before she is trapped in this ghostly world forever.
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Muddled
- By L on 06-01-19
By: Yangsze Choo
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The Lioness of Morocco
- By: Julia Drosten, Christiane Galvani - translator
- Narrated by: Henrietta Meire
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Independent-minded Sibylla Spencer feels trapped in 19th-century London, where her strong will and progressive views have rendered her unmarriageable. Still single at 23, she is treated like a child and feels stifled in her controlling father's house. When Benjamin Hopkins, an ambitious employee of her father's trading company, shows an interest in her, she realizes marriage is her only chance to escape.
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The Lioness o Morocco
- By MM on 06-23-17
By: Julia Drosten, and others
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This Place of Wonder
- A Novel
- By: Barbara O'Neal
- Narrated by: Coleen Marlo, Amy Landon, Alaska Jackson
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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When famed chef Augustus Beauvais dies, he leaves behind a celebrated reputation—and four women grappling with loss, anger, pain, and the question of how the world will turn without him...
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Wish I would have waited to purchase
- By Admirer of great books; critic of bad books. on 07-25-22
By: Barbara O'Neal
Predictable
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Great descriptions
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The narration was excellent. The performers stayed consistent throughout the story and somehow even helped me picture how they moved and looked.
A very enthusiastic thumbs up!
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Hi see why it’s a best seller!
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By Wednesday Dai Randel
The beautiful story of love and preservance in World War 2, Shanghai is captured by the duplicitous Japanese. Oppressed and exploited by the Japanese as the war continues on and on the refugees from Europe to Asia are thrust into the greed and stark violence of the war. A very young Jewish refugee finds employment and love in the clubs of Shanghai. They struggle against the terror and destructive nature of division and prejudices of China, and Japan. It's a remarkable story of over coming our own nature to submit or fight. It's a personal story, a remarkable story of over coming the limits of culture.
amazing story of personal struggle
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Meh with a twist
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Another side of the world war
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to all my fellow readers
Love shanghai
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I am taking away a couple things to Google. Nothing that wouldn't spoil are memories that will stay with me.
I did struggle to finish. I had hoped for author notes that explained the cultural and historical references but there were none.
Okay.
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What a book!
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