{"product_id":"the-box-with-the-sunflower-clasp-uncovering-a-jewish-familys-flight-to-wartime-shanghai-9781785789823","title":"The Box with the Sunflower Clasp: Uncovering a Jewish Family's Flight to Wartime Shanghai","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eA transfixingly readable amalgam of memoir and history... \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eSuperbly written and researched\u003c\/b\u003e.... [Meller] \u003cb\u003ehas turned the raw material of her life into literature'\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eIan Thomson, author of \u003ci\u003ePrimo Levi\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eRachel Meller was never close to her aunt Lisbeth, a cool, unemotional woman with a drawling Viennese-Californian accent, a cigarette in her hand. But when Lisbeth died, she left Rachel an intricately carved Chinese box with a sunflower clasp. Inside the box were photographs, letters and documents that led Rachel to uncover a story she had never known: that of a passionate Jewish teenager growing up in elegant Vienna, who was caught up by war, and forced to flee to Shanghai. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFar from home, in a strange city, Lisbeth and her parents build a new life - a life of small joys and great hardship, surrounded by many others who, like them, have fled Hitler and the Nazis. 1930s Shanghai is a metropolis where the old rules do not apply - a city of fabulous wealth and crushing poverty, where disease is rife, and gangsters rub shoulders with rich emigrés; where summer brings unspeakable heat, and winter is bitterly cold; and where European refugees build community and, maybe, a young woman can find love. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSet against a backdrop of the war in the Far East, \u003ci\u003eThe Box with the Sunflower Clasp\u003c\/i\u003e is a sweeping family memoir that tells the hidden history of the Jews of Shanghai. Rachel Meller writes with elegance and insight as she examines what it means to survive, and what the legacy of displacement and war might mean for the generation that comes afterwards.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.njcorrectionsbookstore.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=AUTH-16827142\"\u003eRachel Meller\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Icon Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 11\/05\/2024\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 256\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.66lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 7.79h x 5.12w x 0.98d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781785789823\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1785789821\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBISAC Categories:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.njcorrectionsbookstore.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-BIO\"\u003eBiography \u0026amp; Autobiography\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.njcorrectionsbookstore.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-BIO037000\"\u003eJewish\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.njcorrectionsbookstore.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-HIS\"\u003eHistory\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.njcorrectionsbookstore.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-HIS022000\"\u003eJewish | General\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.njcorrectionsbookstore.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-HIS\"\u003eHistory\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.njcorrectionsbookstore.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-HIS027100\"\u003eWars \u0026amp; Conflicts | World War II | General\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eRachel Meller\u003c\/b\u003e grew up near London, the middle daughter of Austrian Jewish refugees. After studying neurobiology at Sussex, and research into hormones and behavior at Cambridge, she became a writer in a communication consultancy. \u003ci\u003eThe Box with the Sunflower Clasp \u003c\/i\u003eis her first book.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Icon Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43827390742667,"sku":"9781785789823","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0626\/5100\/7115\/files\/img_cd16b3a3-739a-4826-a6dc-2470a4ca6d0b.jpg?v=1755531876","url":"https:\/\/cacorrectionsbookstore.com\/products\/the-box-with-the-sunflower-clasp-uncovering-a-jewish-familys-flight-to-wartime-shanghai-9781785789823","provider":"CA Corrections Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}