There are some books that begin with a spectacular first chapter, and proceed to draw in the reader so that they almost become part of the story. The Russian Concubine is such a novel. Set in war-torn China in the late 1920’s, it is a truly gripping romance, based loosely on the experiences of the author’s own. I say it is a love story, but this is only a small part of what makes up this marvellous book. The kind of story that has everything. Romance, politics, drugs, adultery, sex, Communism, pickpockets, and Bolshevik searches. The tale follows Lydia Ivanova, a fiery young Russian who lives with her alcoholic mother in the Russian quarter of the International Settlement in Junchow. The characters are all connected in a loop, but all stem from Lydia. Her schoolteacher, Theo Willoughby, works nights importing opium illegally, before returning home to his lover, Li Mei, whose brother, Feng Po Chu, is the leader of the infamous Black Snakes gang, whose number one victim is Chang An Lo, a Communist who risks everything for the fox-like girl for whom he lusts, Lydia Ivanova. Like all good novels, the mysteries are woven together at its end, which, once reached, is definitely a startling yet rewarding close.
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Read Me!
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Katie J.
2 comments:
do you have the book? May I borrow it?
yeah but its leah's. read it in sept.
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