Book dossier

The lost and forgotten languages of Shanghai

by Ruiyan Xu

A happy and successful businessman, dining in a Shanghai hotel, is badly injured by a gas explosion in the building. In the aftermath, the formerly bilingual Li Jin is only able to speak the faltering phrases of the English that he spoke as a child growing up in the United States, and is unable to communicate in Chinese with his wife. The family turns to an American neurologist, and she and Li Jing form a bond that does not need a translator to understand.