Even though Chen is able to work with Catherine, who can masquerade as a translator in St. Louis because of her knowledge of Chinese, their relationship has been strained by time and distance; can it be salvaged? Eventually, Chen finds a quiet moment to sort through many of his feelings in a restaurant bar located close my own house, and close to Catherine's. Chen struggles to shrug off the hesitancy that T. S. Eliot described so well,* to be decisive with Catherine, and to move forward in his investigation. To survive, he must navigate the immense and contradictory forces that shape life and death in contemporary Shanghai. If you enjoy great fiction or compelling and complex mysteries, you'll want to join him.
* From The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot:
And indeed there will be time
To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”
Time to turn back and descend the stair,
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