Search - When We Were Orphans

Intriguing story, interesting details of old Shanghai. Very odd ending,not sure what to think.

Novel based on disappearance of protagonists's parents in Japan when he was young. He travels to Japan to find out the truth about them, and does, and wishes he hadn't.

England, 1930s. Christopher Banks has become the country's most celebrated detective, his cases the talk of London society. Yet one unsolved crime has always haunted him: the mysterious disappearance of his parents in Old Shanghai when he was a small boy. Now, as the world lurches towards total war, Banks realizes that the time has come for him to return to the city of his childhood and at last solve the mystery - that only by doing so will the world be saved from the approaching catastrophe.

Moving between London and Shanghai of the inter-war years, When We Were Orphans is a story of remembrance, deception and the longing for home; of a childhood vision of the world surviving deep into adulthood, indelibly shaping and distorting a person's life.

Kazuo Ishiguro is, I think, an amazing storyteller. The main character and the mystery behind his activities held my interest as a reader and made me anxious to continue reading. I will say, however, that I thought the main character got a bit foolish toward the end of the book and I couldn't quite fathom how or why he would become so. Still, well worth reading.