Lust, Caution by Eileen Chang

Lust, Caution

The Story

Eileen Chang

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group · Print & ebook · September 4, 2007

A major motion picture (2007) from Oscar-winning director Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Brokeback Mountain): an intensely passionate story of love and espionage, set in Shanghai during World War II.

Buy on Amazon

We earn from qualifying purchases.

Who it’s for
Lush prose gives wartime Shanghai’s political tension an intimate, dangerous charge.
Themes
Wartime resistance and espionage, Political intrigue, Doomed romance
Genres
Chinese Literary Collections, 20th-Century Historical Romance, Political Thrillers

About this book

A major motion picture (2007) from Oscar-winning director Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Brokeback Mountain): an intensely passionate story of love and espionage, set in Shanghai during World War II. In the midst of the Japanese occupation of China and Hong Kong, two lives become intertwined: Wong Chia Chi, a young student active in the resistance, and Mr. Yee, a powerful political figure who works for the Japanese occupational government.

Continue reading

As these two move deftly between Shanghai’s tea parties and secret interrogations, they become embroiled in the complicated politics of wartime—and in a mutual attraction that may be more than what they expected. Written in lush, lavish prose, and with the tension of a political thriller, Lust, Caution brings 1940s Shanghai artfully to life even as it limns the erotic pulse of a doomed love affair.

Desire Under Pressure

Lush prose gives wartime Shanghai’s political tension an intimate, dangerous charge.

Come here for

  • A love story threaded with espionage and wartime politics
  • The charged contrast between tea parties and secret interrogations

Expect

  • Lavish prose and political-thriller tension
  • An attraction complicated by danger and divided loyalties

Where it sits

Political Thrillers48%
20th-Century Historical Romance20%
Chinese Literary Collections19%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • Literary Fiction
  • Historical Romance
  • Political Thrillers
Authors
Eileen Chang
Publisher
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published
September 4, 2007
Format
Print & ebook
Theme
Wartime resistance and espionage · Political intrigue · Doomed romance
Reading lane
Literary Fiction