I was drawn to this book because my husband’s Russian family lived in Shanghai after fleeing the 1917 revolution. The real stories of survival while Shanghai was in chaos and then under Communist rule are gripping. The descriptions of adjusting to life elsewhere, especially in anti-Chinese 1950s American, were painful to read. This is readable history. The stories read like a modern political thriller and I had a hard time putting down this book. Finally, the stories of the people who escaped Shanghai helped provide some perspective on immigration, asylum, and the reasons people choose to leave the only homes and communities they’ve known.