"In breathtaking detail, novelist Nina Vida draws you into the world of the Jews exiled in Shanghai during World War Two, a world inhospitable and violent, and too often overlooked in history. While others fall victim to despair or avarice, Lilli Chernofsky, an unlikely heroine, navigates a dangerous world without losing her honor or compassion. Lilli Chernofsky is a story of treachery and deceit, brutality and bigotry, and, yet in the midst of the harshness and indignities visited upon the Jewish refugees, Lilli's story remains a triumph of love and loyalty."-Cynthia A. Graham, author of Beneath Still Waters and Behind Every Door

"Nina Vida has written an astonishingly good book. By bribery and skill, Lilli outlasts the cruelty and degradation of Shanghai's Japanese occupiers. I found myself transfixed by a master class of absolutely brilliant writing; descriptions of illicit wheeling and dealing brings each character into focus using a clever mixture of narrative and dialogue."-John Newton, publisher, Next Century Books, England