A Winter in China

by Douglas Galbraith

Able, bored and just down from Cambridge in the summer of 1937, Sally Marsden contemplates her future without enthusiasm. So many have assumed she will marry Hugh Jerrold it is, practically, an engagement. When Hugh returns from his diplomatic posting to China there will be a wedding and a thoroughly respectable settling down. One afternoon Sally's father, impelled by a mixture of his own dissastisfactions, compassion for his daughter's predicament, a newspaper advertisement in The Times and a passing desire to spite his wife, suggests that she travel to China herself. Sally can spend a winter in China and she and Hugh can return together the next spring.

Sally accepts a last adventure before submitting to the strictures of upper-middle-class English female life. By the time she arrives in the East it is not long before the Sino-Japanese war begins to lap around the edges of the isolated and complacent western settlements. A move inland to Nanking restores the peace.

But only a few weeks pass before a disastrous miscalculation separates Sally from Hugh and leaves her trapped in the city, one of two dozen Europeans and Americans to witness the capture and sack of the Chinese capital by the Japanese Imperial Army. The experience is shared with Peter Moss, an American photo-journalist and friend of Hugh. Bystanders in a racial war, Sally and Peter emerge physically unscathed and return to the foreign settlements in Shanghai.

Sally and Peter went through Nanking together and Hugh now finds himself on the outside of their changed lives. Attempts to carry on as before quickly founder. At a last diplomatic party Sally takes violent leave of all the values and taboos of her class. As the situation in China deteriorates, the three find themselves on the same ship returning to the security of Europe in 1938. A Winter in China is a gripping portrait of lives in turmoil in a world running out of control.

Genres: China, Historical Fiction

320 pages, Hardcover

First published February 22, 2005

Reviews

[S.schouwenaars · Rating 4 out of 5]

Een langzame start maar uiteindelijk wel een goed boek. Wel wat luguber in de omschrijvingen van gepleegde oorlogsmisdaden.

[Lyn Stevens · Rating 1 out of 5]

Possibly the most boring book I've ever read. Sorry....

[Pennywise · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot say just how historically accurate this is, so I won’t try, but for pure entertainment, it’s fab. Moving, gripping and emotive, a little piece of history that most have forgotten, or never knew about, is brought vividly to life between these pages. I don’t know if the author had a personal reason for the setting, but the descriptions are astonishingly clear and realistic – a lot of research went into this. It moved me to look up the Sino-Japanese war and find out more about this horror. I learned a lot.
And the characters are well drawn and sympathetic. You find yourself wondering what you would do in such a situation, how you would handle it and your admiration grows for Sally, in particular, as the book goes on. I have to admit, I didn’t like her much at the start.
Highly recommend.

[Chrissi · Rating 3 out of 5]

As someone who currently resides in Shanghai, I wanted to learn more about WWII history in China. The crimes of Nanjing are recorded in other books I've read, and this one is as raw as the China winter winds. It's certainly not for the faint-hearted, though, as some of the scenes are told in terrifying and gut-wrenching detail. But, the entire real history is shocking and horrifying, and Galbraith pulls no punches were the war and sacking of Nanjing are concerned. The ending, perhaps, was somewhat expected, but Sally is a woman who, having left England in search of adventure, is sure to never be the same again - and neither will the reader.

[KitCat · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed the setting of this book more than the characters. It was very predictable and I was annoyed with the love triangle that seemed to be inflicted on the story line in order to give it some plot. The author has a skill with describing the history around the characters, I think I would have been happier reading this if it was a nonfiction story and he could delve into the characters' lives a bit more.

[Suzi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall I enjoyed this book. I liked the beginning much more than the end. He changed his writing style mid-book, which I found a bit confusing. It's a good read for the beach or an airplane. I did like the historical accounts about what happened in China when the Japanese invaded, I found that really interesting and well written.

[Lorna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought about a 3 but then I realised that it had bored me quite often. The setting was interesting but the characters a bit stilted and the love triangle not central to the theme. Kept thinking why bother but I finished it and it was well written and its context probably well researched.

[H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written fairly decent read but I found it very slow going and I just wasn't able to connect with it! Relieved I'm finally finished it!!

[Gill Schell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just couldn't get into this book. Found the style, plot and characters dull.

[Lynette · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved the history in the book. Rest not too gripping..