Shanghailanders

The New York Times Editors’ Choice

From a wise observer “of the ever-complicated matters of the heart” (Kirstin Chen) comes an unforgettable debut novel about a changing family in a changing world.

To the outside world, Leo and Eko Yang and their three charming daughters seem to have it all—wealth, beauty, and brains to match. They live in the privileged world of international Shanghai while jet-setting to their secondary homes in France, Japan, and the United States.

But Leo and Eko are at a crossroads. Their daughters are almost grown. Leo is nearing the end of a wildly successful career in Shanghai real estate, while Eko’s reach as an artist is only growing. After twenty-five years, what are the bonds keeping 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 world 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. Along the way, Juli Min shows how a family makes and remakes itself over the years: what unites us and slowly drives us apart.

Gorgeously written and brilliantly constructed, Shanghailanders is the introduction of a major new literary talent.

“A thrilling, futuristic family drama that captures the joys, disappointments, and inside jokes of one Shanghai family in reverse chronological order. . . . By giving readers the gift of hindsight, Min shows how one enigmatic family falls apart and comes back together over several decades.”—Time