Told in reverse chronological order, this bold experiment with time pays off beautifully, completely unsettling the reader’s expectations. Min’s prose is elegant and crystalline as it refracts the family’s cruelties.

Ambitious . . . a thrilling, futuristic family drama that captures the joys, disappointments, and inside jokes of one Shanghai family in reverse chronological order.

Tender, atmospheric, and wholly captivating . . . Min has established herself as a sharp chronicler of contemporary China-and of the ever-complicated matters of the heart.

Shanghailanders is a wonderful, wildly smart and compelling book. If Shanghai is the future, this terrific novel knows it all. We follow a glorious cluster of characters as they trip over their own longings, in this fiction of real astuteness.

Bracing, thrilling, and breathtakingly smart . . . Shanghailanders offers a new way of seeing. Not just of Shanghai, but France, Japan, America, and every last corner of its characters’ minds . . . Absolutely extraordinary.

Lyrical and haunting, Shanghailanders explores the enduring mysteries of family . . . Min movingly portrays the Yangs and their many seasons of love and loss in a metropolis that perpetually rises, falls, and emerges from the ashes. An extraordinary debut.

Marvellous.

Smart, tender and lyrical – Shanghailanders never stops surprising the reader . . .

Readers can follow each family member throughout their life — and discover how lucky it is to have the benefit of hindsight.

Min’s remarkable debut novel . . . Having knowledge of these characters’ futures before we know about their past makes stumbling on their bygone days all the more touching . . . My answer to my original question of whether this unusual storytelling structure is worthwhile would be a resounding yes.

An unusual and immersive reading experience.

Min’s debut novel is a complicated family story, told in reverse . . . a family simmering with secrets and tensions.

Min’s debut will be appreciated by readers who relish the joy of discovery and piecing information together to shape the characters and events in their own minds. It is an intriguing portrait of a fragmented family where nothing is ever quite what it seems. A strong option for book groups.

[An] assured debut, told in reverse chronology . . . credibly reflect[ing] the messiness of family. Min is a writer worth keeping tabs on.

With a cosmopolitan scope that takes readers from Shanghai, to Paris, to Boston . . . There’s something here for every reader.

Enthralling . . . In her masterful storytelling, Min captures the essence of life in a rapidly changing city and world . . . A captivating read that will linger in the minds of readers.

[An] audacious debut . . . Min is a talented writer whose debut shows much promise. Her own future, at least, appears bright.

Min’s prose is quick-footed and captivating and the book’s structure of a novel-in-stories makes it a perfect holiday read, with interlocking tales to dip into between trips to the pool.

A colourful and ambitious novel, Shanghailanders deftly unpacks the meaning of family and belonging.