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2000s: A story of illicit love and raw passion with unexpected twists and poignant depth.
2000s: A story of illicit love and raw passion with unexpected twists and poignant depth.
Manfred Morse has just hit fifty, and also the wall. Life seems empty. His marriage is long since over, his leathery old father is in his tenth year of dying of cancer, while his colleagues play games of petty politics. Seeking stress leave from his New Zealand university, he takes a job as guest lecturer at a university in Shanghai. Here he suddenly comes face-to-face with raw passion, but in the shape of one his students, aged only eighteen.
When this young student goes missing, the police come knocking on Manfred’s door. Who is the killer? Manfred? Or is he a victim?
Mainly set in Shanghai with a few flashbacks to New Zealand
The rain in Shanghai is a think drizzle and the weather is hot and muggy and if this story is to be blelieved cabbies who con.
The season is known as Season of Plum Rain which actually sounds quite nice but apparently is it’s not and there’s no plum trees either.
The atmosphere early on is drawn by the name he gives the street where he lives : Obscure Provincinal City One Street. The shop where he buys something from is Sincere Daily Stop.
The university however is where the real challenge of this city begins..
Author/Guide: Stevan Eldred-Grigg Destination: New Zealand, Shanghai Departure Time: 2000s
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