Night Angels
Ratings6
Average rating3.8
From the author of The Last Rose of Shanghai comes a profoundly moving novel about a diplomatic couple who risked their lives to help Viennese Jews escape the Nazis, based on the true story of Dr. Ho Fengshan, Righteous Among the Nations. 1938. Dr. Ho Fengshan, consul general of China, is posted in Vienna with his American wife, Grace. Shy and ill at ease with the societal obligations of diplomats' wives, Grace is an outsider in a city beginning to feel the sweep of the Nazi dragnet. When Grace forms a friendship with her Jewish tutor, Lola Schnitzler, Dr. Ho requests that Grace keep her distance. His instructions are to maintain amicable relations with the Third Reich, and he and Grace are already under their vigilant eye. But when Lola's family is subjugated to a brutal pogrom, Dr. Ho decides to issue them visas to Shanghai. As violence against the Jews escalates after Kristallnacht and threats mount, Dr. Ho must issue thousands more to help Jews escape Vienna before World War II explodes. Based on a remarkable true story, Night Angels explores the risks brave souls took and the love and friendship they built and lost while fighting against incalculable evil.
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Bought this book knowing nothing more than its brief description. The story of Dr. Ho Fengshan brings to life a piece of WW2 and the horrific experience of the Jewish people of Vienna faced most, myself included, may not have known. This book has inspired me to learn more about China during WW2.
Weina Dai Randel has written such a wonderfully well written novel and I look forward to reading her other works.
I've debated on what star review to give this book. While the story is excellent (although I felt it went a bit weak at the end), I've wrestled with it containing real life people in falsified situations. For some reason, it just sits a bit icky to make up a life about someone who actually lived that life. I think I would have felt better after reading it, had the author made up the character names entirely, then add her addendum at the end about Dr. Ho being the real-life inspiration for her story. I feel when someone reads a historical book about a real person, the fact and fiction tend to blur too much when creative liberty is taken to the extent it was in this book. Without getting into spoilers, one of the main characters wasn't even present in Vienna during the time the story takes place. I get it is labeled as fiction, but the use of real names just feels off to me. Make it fiction with fictional names, then share the inspiration for the story so there is no blurring.
TL:DR - Great story, but I wish she would have used false names if she is going to bend the true history as much as she did.
