When We Were Orphans

Christopher Banks grows up in the International Settlement of Shanghai in the early twentieth century, until his parents vanish when he is a child. Sent to England, he becomes a celebrated detective in London society. In the 1930s he returns to Shanghai, determined to solve the mystery of his parents' disappearance, just as war approaches. The novel plays with the detective story, but it is really about memory, childhood loyalty and the way a narrator can misread his own past and importance.