by Paul West
First published 1997
Nanking falls to Japanese forces in December 1937. The daughter of a respected Chinese scholar watches her world collapse as brutal invaders sweep through the city. The teenager faces an impossible choice when survival demands she work as a prostitute. Her father's intellectual status offers no protection against the violence that transforms their ancient city into a nightmare. She must navigate between preserving her dignity and staying alive as soldiers destroy everything she has known. The young woman's struggle reveals how ordinary people endure when civilization crumbles around them. Her story captures the human cost of war through one family's devastating loss of safety and status.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, war
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, survival
Setting: Nanking, China
Period: 1937
272 pages · Paperback · Overlook Books
Content warnings: sexual-content, violence