The Distant Land of My Father Author:Bo Caldwell Anna Schoene is a golden child. Her parents, Joseph and Genevieve, were rich American expats in Shanghai before the Japanese invaded, before the war intervened. The child of missionaries, Joseph Schoene has made his fortune on his wits; he is a man in love with China, his daughter, and with the idea of taking risks. For the young Anna, Shanghai ... more »is a magical world; she loves the city as much as her father does. But when the Japanese invade and when war comes, even Anna knows that their life in China is over. Joseph sends his wife and daughter back to America with the promise that they will soon be reunited, but, despite imprisonment by the Japanese and the loss of much of his fortune, for decades he cannot bring himself to follow them. Anna grows up half way across the world from her home and her father, and it is only over the years that she gradually learns Joseph's real story the story both of his Chinese past and, finally, that of his old age in California.« less
A really good book that tells about the love between a father and a daughter and the father and a city. And how that man refuses to put his wife and daughter before that city. The characters were so believsble. At times, the book brought tears to my eyes. Our book club just read it and everyone in the group gave the book a "thumbs up".
Like the other reviewers, this book kept my interest and attention to the end. I, also, read it until it was finished, in one sitting. The author writes in a way that pulls you in and makes you feel that you are seeing it all. Loved it.
This is a first novel. According to the back cover, the narrator grows up in Shanghai in the 30s and 40s and has a special bond with her father, who is a smuggler and millionaire. (His parents, however, were missionaries.) The family flees to Los Angeles in the face of the Japanese occupation, but the father remains in Shanghai, "believing his connections and luck will keep him safe. He's wrong." He does survive, but still choses Shanghai over his family during WWII. The daughter connects with him again, late in his life, but she can't really understand him until she reads his journals.