Author Description

The dramatic events of the first half of the twentieth century in China -- the revolution that turned the Chinese empire into a republic, the war with Japan, the Nationalists' campaigns against the Red Army and the ultimate triumph of the Chinese Communist Party -- have been told in numerous books. What is exceptionsl about Lynn Pan's account is that she relates these events through a collage of interlocking historical portraits. Du Yuesheng, whose ascent to the summit of Shanghai's organized crime traced that city's own spectacular rise to riches; Wang Jingwei, who believed he was saving his country but was in fact selling it to the Japanese; General Dai Li, who ran war time Asia's most powerful secret police -- these are among the swirl of people and incident she brings vivdly to life... Such is her eye for detail and her grasp of the Chinese psyche that the reader is lured on through this complex story as easily as if he were reading a thriller.