'The future contained in the past, the past contained in the future . . .'
2040: Leo Yang - handsome, distinguished, a real Shanghai man - is on the train back to the city after seeing his family off at the airport. His wife, Eko, and their two eldest children, Yumi and Yoko, are headed for Boston, though one daughter's revelation will soon reroute them to Paris.
2039: Kiko, their youngest daughter and an aspiring actress, decides to pursue fame at any cost, like her icon Marilyn Monroe.
2038: Yumi comes to Yoko in need, after a college-dorm situation at Harvard goes disastrously wrong.
As the years rewind to 2014, Shanghailanders brings readers into the shared and separate lives of the Yang family parent by parent, daughter by daughter, and through the eyes of those in their orbit. Through the speed, technology and history of this old, futuristic city, we catch glimpses of an uncertain, unknowable future.
Whatever may change, universal constants remain: love is complex, life is not fair and family will always be stubbornly connected by blood, secrets and longing. Brilliantly constructed and achingly resonant, Shanghailanders is a mesmerising exploration of marriage, relationships and the layered experience of time.