The Mandarin Club

During the 1930s and 40s, when the Japanese captured women from conquered territories, they often transported them to military brothels.

In 1942, seventeen-year-old Wang Di is shipped off to one. For six decades she tells no-one what she went through.

And in the year 2000, her twelve year-old grandson Kevin overhears a mumbled confession. He sets out to discover the truth, wherever it might lead, setting in motion an unforeseeable journey into the past.

Sanmao lived one of the most extraordinary lives of the past century. Selling fifteen million books as an author, she lived a nomadic lifestyle that is a distant dream for most Chinese people, who are shackled by cultural traditions of filial piety.

She is up there with Chairman Mao and Lu Xun as one of the most quoted historical figures throughout the Chinese diaspora. 'Stories of the Sahara' is an account of her life and love while living in the Sahara desert in the 1970s with her Spanish husband.

In Manchuria at the start of the twentieth century, a courtesan is found frozen in a doorway. Bao, a detective with an uncanny ability to sniff out the truth, is hired to uncover the dead woman's identity. Bao has long been fascinated with fox gods, who are alleged to lure people to their deaths by transforming into beautiful lovers.

The fox-like Snow is seeking vengeance for her murdered child. Hunting a killer, she will follow the trail across the sea to Japan, while the world-weary Bao follows. Navigating the myths of fox spirits, death follows Snow and Bao at every step of their journey.

A fortress besieged is a metaphor for marriage: everybody out wants in, and everybody in wants out. Considered one of the masterpieces of twentieth century literature, it is littered with memorable quotes and witty observations.

It follows the feckless Fang Hongjian, who is returning home to China after running out of money while studying abroad. Despite enjoying financial support from his family, Fang has neglected his studies and bought a fake degree.

On board the Vicomte de Bragelonne, he meets the pretty and unmarried Su Wenwan. He also meets the tanned and voluptuous Miss Pao, whom Fang pursues with some success during the voyage. When the boat reaches Hong Kong, Miss Pao disembarks into the embrace of her fiancé, and Fang realizes he has been used. This is just the beginning.

It has been argued in the LA Review of Books that Qian Zhongshu was Nobel Prize material for this novel alone. https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/a-monument-to-what-might-have-been-qian-zhongshus-fortress-besieged/