Why a Booktrail?
1928: A novel which captures the true essence of Pre revolutionary China as well as Russia.
The Russian Concubine (The Girl from Junchow)
What you need to know before your trail
China, 1929.
Lydia Ivanova has always believed that her father was killed by the Bolsheviks. When she learns that he is in fact being held in Stalin-controlled Russia, she plans to leave everything behind – even her Chinese lover, Chang An Lo, to find him again.
She travels to Moscow and starts the search with Alexei her half brother. However the search suddenly become more dangerous when Alexei abruptly disappears. Lydia is left alone, penniless in Soviet Russia.
Meanwhile, Chang An Lo is still in the background for he knows things about Lydia’s father that she does not. He realises it is up to him to protect her but with his involvement in the Communist Party back at home, it is never going to be an easy task.
Lydia could be in great danger…
Travel Guide
Kate Furnivall shares a lot of information via her settings on her website – katefurnivall.com
She explains how she drew inspiration for The Russian Concubine from her mother’s experiences as a White Russian refugee in China.
Junchow – Tientsin (Tianjin)
Junchow is a fictionalised version of Tientsin (now Tianjin) in northern China. In Junchow there is an International Settlement where British, French, Russian and other foreigners live –created by Britain and hated by China. Great Britain desire to increase commerce, provoked the First Opium War (1839-1842) which gave Britain the opportunity to enforce a punitive treaty on China, The Treaty of Nanjing, after their gunboats and army had subdued China’s resistance. The treaty opened up 5 Treaty Ports to trade.
But the Western powers were greedy and wanted more, so this led to the Second Opium War (1856-1860) where the West imposedThe Treaty of Tientsin and The Convention of Peking. These conceded 11 more ports and forced China to open up its country to greater Western access.
All this began a long history of bitter Chinese resentment which led eventually to the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 .
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information:
Twitter: @KateFurnivall
Facebook: /KateFurnivallAuthor
Web: katefurnivall.com
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