Editorial Content for Whispering Shadows
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WHISPERING SHADOWS is an impressive work by any standard. Written by critically acclaimed German author Jan-Philipp Sendker and translated by Christine Lo, the book is strong and almost never flags from beginning to end. It is very much a character-driven novel, both of person and of setting. China and Hong Kong, interchangeable to many but full of stark differences, are as much characters here as are the people who move throughout. They’re not so much fish out of water as they are fish in strange and occasionally deceptively familiar ponds.
Paul Leibovitz is the primary mover and shaker, in spite of himself, in WHISPERING SHADOWS. When we meet him, he is all but a total recluse, living, ironically enough, on an island off the teeming city of Hong Kong. We quickly learn that Paul wasn’t always as he is now. At one point a successful consultant and devoted father and husband, he now wears the sorrow of personal tragedy like a funeral cloak. He maintains an arms-length relationship with Christine, a Chinese expat in Hong Kong and an attractive single mother who runs a fledgling travel agency, and Zhang, a Chinese homicide detective who struggles to maintain his integrity in a sea of bribery.
"WHISPERING SHADOWS is wonderfully told and beautifully written. The ending is a surprise, a nugget that one hardly expects to find at the end of a path full of thorns."
Paul’s isolation is cracked when he has a fleeting, chance encounter with an American woman named Elizabeth Owens on a train. Elizabeth and her husband, Richard, have business interests in China. Those interests are run by their adult son, Michael, who has gone missing. In spite of his voluntary isolation, Paul feels compelled, albeit reluctantly, to help the parents. He proceeds to do so, against the advice of Christine, whose bitter experiences in China give her good reason to urge restraint. Paul nonetheless contacts Zhang, who quickly enough is able to provide him, and thus the Owens, with tragic news early on: their son has been murdered. A suspect is quickly identified and a confession obtained, and the book ends.
Actually, that’s not quite what happens. The confessed killer has a solid alibi; he could not have killed Michael. Paul discovers evidence that points in the direction of another individual, a powerful and influential figure in the roaring Chinese economy. Zhang is driven by a sense of duty and justice, but knows that any effort he makes at revealing the truth not only will be futile but also will have a devastating effect on his wife and child, not to mention himself. As the story unfolds, the book becomes more than a mystery, asking this question: Can justice (whatever that may be) always result in the greater good when the path to it is not always clear.
WHISPERING SHADOWS is wonderfully told and beautifully written. The ending is a surprise, a nugget that one hardly expects to find at the end of a path full of thorns. Is justice ultimately done at the conclusion of the novel? That is the question that Sendker tantalizingly leaves for those characters who survive to the end --- and to the reader --- of this mysterious, bittersweet book.
Teaser
American expat Paul Leibovitz was once an ambitious advisor, dedicated father and loving husband. But after living for nearly 30 years in Hong Kong, personal tragedy strikes and Paul’s marriage unravels in the fallout. Now Paul is living as a recluse on an outlying island of Hong Kong. When he makes a fleeting connection with Elizabeth, a distressed American woman on the verge of collapse, his life is thrown into turmoil. Less than 24 hours later, Elizabeth’s son is found dead, and Paul sets out to investigate the murder on his own.
Promo
American expat Paul Leibovitz was once an ambitious advisor, dedicated father and loving husband. But after living for nearly 30 years in Hong Kong, personal tragedy strikes and Paul’s marriage unravels in the fallout. Now Paul is living as a recluse on an outlying island of Hong Kong. When he makes a fleeting connection with Elizabeth, a distressed American woman on the verge of collapse, his life is thrown into turmoil. Less than 24 hours later, Elizabeth’s son is found dead, and Paul sets out to investigate the murder on his own.
About the Book
In this first book of the Rising Dragon series, “explore a side of Hong Kong tourists rarely experience” (Kirkus Reviews) as an expat journalist tries to crack a murder case in the “darkly beautiful, heart-wrenching” (Booklist, starred review) thriller set in China from the internationally bestselling author of THE ART OF HEARING HEARTBEATS.
Once an ambitious American expat and a dedicated family man, Paul Leibovitz is living as a recluse on an outlying island of Hong Kong. When he makes a fleeting connection with Elizabeth, a distressed American woman on the verge of collapse, his life is thrown into turmoil. Less than 24 hours later, Elizabeth’s son is found dead in Shenzhen, and Paul, invigorated by a newfound purpose, sets out to investigate the murder on his own.
As Paul, Elizabeth and a detective friend descend deeper into a politically corrupt China and the Shenzhen underworld --- against the wishes of a woman with whom Paul has a growing flirtation --- they discover dark secrets and vestiges of the Cultural Revolution that people will go to any lengths to keep hidden. Part love story, part crime thriller, WHISPERING SHADOWS is the captivating tale of one man’s desperate search for redemption within the grip of a world superpower, a place where secrets from the past threaten to upend the future.
