Shanghailanders

Min has an impressive ability to get inside stories and to make them feel rounded and significant. But the downside of that is that this book feels more like a collection of interlinked tales rather than an organic novel. The backwards telling as we move from 2040 to 2014 adds to this fracturing as story elements don't conclude or lead anywhere and while it's fascinating to trace what we didn't know in the first sections set in the future until we come to the later stories set in the past, there's also something a bit unsatisfactory about being left hanging like that.

I was somewhat disappointed that there's little sense of Shanghai or China, and not much is different in 2040 from now - there are super high-speed trains, and the climate is a bit hotter in one section but nothing seems to have materially changed.

At the heart of the stories, though, is the family: Leo and Eko and their three daughters. Moving between Shanghai, Japan and Paris; across generations; and viewing the family from both the interior and exterior, this deals with scenarios and moments that feel very human and which are treated with a kind of expansive and non-judgemental empathy.

And that's where I think Min's skills sit: take away the slightly gimmicky backwards telling and this is an intimate look at family relationships, what is said and unsaid, and how people grow into, and out of, their family roles.

This debut is absolutely stunning, a journey, an exploration of relationships through time

The book begins in the near future, 2040 and travels back with the Yang family to 2014, detailing the drama's loves and losses of Leo, his wife Eko and their children, Yumi, Yoko and Kiko. The multiple POV's add an interesting dimension to the story, enriching it still further

The family are close knot and their mother a strong, stabilising factor, but who also endures her own fears and dramas

The primary message is that "Constants remain: love is complex, life is not fair, and family will always be stubbornly connected by blood, secrets, and longing"

Shanghailanders s a stunning technical accomplishment in respect of the layering of era's and a literary accomplishment in the insightful nature of the narrative The reader is not a passive observer, but drawn into the story and intrinsically invested before they know it

The fluidity of family connections is well described and the character building is fantastic. Juil Min has an elegantly lyrical writing style that is both graceful and stong, but will stab you straight through the heart when you are not looking

Truly phenomenal and will no doubt not the last we hear of this excellent author

Thank you to Netgalley, Dialogue Books and Juli Min for this wonderful ARC. My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own

Such a beautiful and poignant novel! The narrative was unique, I don't often see a book going backwards when recounting a story instead of towards the future and that was the main thing that made me liked this book. the characters were well-written and it was so interesting to see a character regression instead of progression. I just wished it had leaned a little more into the futuristic aspect and the Shanghai setting, especially at the start. 4.5 stars

I love this book. I'm always a sucker for a family saga, but to have it follow just one generation and in reverse was brilliant. Event's linked together but backwards so I found myself really paying attention to small details in case they became important later. Yet it was not burdensome at all. The side characters that loaned an outsiders perspective on the family while also adding their personal views on Shanghai were a stroke of genius. This book is just wonderful!

The debuts just keep knocking it out of the park, another fantastic read from an author to keep a close on, looking over the past and detailing the present but set in a future Shanghai, a deep look at what it is to be family and how the idea of family changes and transforms with time.