Qiu Xiaolong - Shanghai Redemption

“Like the eastern wind, right? Lai was such a powerful figure only yesterday, with a mighty fleet of the red song-singing leftists following him all the way. You’re truly a man of learning, sir,” she said with admiration. “So, you’re a university professor?”

“I would love to teach that poem to a class,” he said, “if there were enough students interested.”

He wondered whether that poem was included in Qian’s CD, as a new wave of sadness washed over him.

He took the CD out. An insect started chirping somewhere in the garden. It was as if he were taking it from her slender hand in Cai’s Noodles only this morning.

DURING THE WRITING OF the book, a lot of people have helped, in one way or another, and I want to mention here Quynh-Thu Le, Harlan A. Pinto, and Anna Fu in a list too long for me to go through. I am so grateful to all of them for their help, which makes the writing possible. I also want to thank my editing team, Keith Kahla, Margit Longbrake, and Hannah Braaten, for their extraordinary work.

QIU XIAOLONG was born in Shanghai. A poet and a translator, he is the author of several previous novels featuring Inspector Chen, as well as Years of Red Dust . He lives with his family in St. Louis, Missouri. You can sign up for email updates here.