Set in Shanghai in the 1930's, this novel is narrated by Anna, daughter of a millionaire and grandaughter of missionaries, who gradually learns to understand the mixture of talent and weakness that is her father. Anna spends the first seven years of her life living in the International Settlement of Shanghai, going on weekly excursions with her father, who teaches her Mandarin words, the names of trees and flowers, and gradually introduces her to the larger world of Chinese culture. When her mother flees with Anna to her childhood home of California to escape Japanese occupation, Anne must learn to adapt to a new culture, a new grandmother, and the realization that her father may never join them. I enjoyed the haunting quality of this book. The characters were so real that I didn't want to book to end. It also offered an interesting look into the day-to-day life of living in Shanghai and how a city was changed by the occupation of the Japanese and the coming of communism. Caldwell is also a master of showing how deeply place can affect a person. Joseph Schoene, Anna's father, is driven much of his life by his love for Shanghai, a love that for a time overrides his love for his wife and daughter. Anna, in learning to say goodbye to her father and the life she had in Shanghai, grows to love her new home in California, a process which changes her and protects her against uprootedness. Because of this, she is able, later in life, to understand what drove her father to make his earlier mistakes..
