House of Memory - Tapa dura

A young American scholar, Matthew Walker journeys to Shanghai to finish his research for a book on the city's history and, at the same time, discover the fate of his lover's great-uncle, who disappeared in 1927

as R. Clifford has written a beguiling novel that pierces the labyrinth of modern China's sad history with breathtaking ease....This is historical fiction of a high order, and nobody who begins THE HOUSE OF MEMORY could possibly resist its spell."

JAY PARINI

Author of THE LAST STATION

In the spring of 1989 Matthew Walker, a young American scholar, travels to Shanghai to finish research on a book about the city's turbulent past. But he is also determined to discover the fate of his American lover's uncle, Simon Larson, who vanished from Shanghai three weeks before the Nationalists crushed the Communist uprising in 1927. Simon had left behind and journal, and Matthew combes for clues to his disappearance, arranging secret meetings with reluctant participants and uncovering long-suppressed documents. What he discovers, however, are striking parallels between two worlds, decades apart, as echoes from history reverberate to brutal consequence in Tiananmen Square.