Janie Chang's compelling fourth novel, The Porcelain Moon, weaves the stories of two young women seeking love and freedom in the final days of World War I. Pauline Deng enjoys working in her uncle's antique shop in Paris with Theo, her cousin, and knows it's a far better life than she could expect as an orphaned daughter in Shanghai. Theo is less enthusiastic about both the business and his arranged marriage. He finds ways to delay the latter, including joining the Chinese Labour Corps as a translator when war breaks out. Stationed in Noyelles-sur-Mer, he meets Camille, a local woman desperate to escape her abusive marriage. When Pauline receives word that her own marriage has been arranged, meaning she will be sent back to Shanghai, she hops a train north to find Theo and ask him to plead her case.
Chang (The Library of Legends; Dragon Springs Road; Three Souls) sheds light on the experiences of thousands of Chinese workers brought to Europe as noncombatant labor during the war. Theo and his colleagues occupy an odd in-between place in both the army and the villages where they are stationed. Pauline not only meets Camille and other locals when she arrives in Noyelles-sur-Mer, but she also stumbles onto a potentially dangerous ring of black marketeers. As the war grinds toward its end, both Camille and Pauline undertake desperate actions to preserve their fledgling friendship and their own futures. The Porcelain Moon is an absorbing, detailed slice of little-known World War I history and a tribute to two strong women. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams