Description
Experiencing a seemingly idyllic childhood in pre-World War II Shanghai, Anna flees to California with her mother when the Japanese occupation begins, believing her charismatic millionaire father's connections will keep him safe. A first novel. Reader's Guide included. Reprint. 30,000 first printing.
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Anna grows up in a storybook world--exotic Shanghai in the 1930s, with handsome young parents, wealth, and comfort. Her father is the son of missionaries, a smuggler and a millionaire, who leads a charmed and secretive life. His greatest joy is sharing the city he loves with his daughter. With the Japanese occupation and the start of the Second World War, his fortunes change drastically. When his family flees to California, he chooses to remain in Shanghai, believing his connections and luck will keep him safe. He's wrong. He survives, only to again choose Shanghai over his family when the communists take over. Making a new home with her mother in Los Angeles, Anna comes to realize that the father she adores is never going to join them. But in the early 1950s, when she has a family of her own, he suddenly reappears. The Distant Land of My Father is a moving and unforgettable story of betrayal and reconciliation, and of the ways those we love can change and surprise us.
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