Kindle Edition Amazon www.authorsden.com Category:  Historical Fiction Publisher: Amazon Digital Services ISBN-10:  0595148956 Pages: 328 Copyright: November 17, 2014 ISBN-13: 9780595148950 Price: $3.99 (eBook) Too soon after the second Big War and occupation by the Japanese army, Shanghai in 1948 faces occupation by Mao Tse-tung's army. The affluent foreigners believe business will continue as before; hasn't it always, after every conflict? But the Russians, the stateless ones who fled the Bolshevik revolution in 1918, believe the Communists will kill them. For Maria Conti and her family, the executioner wears a different countenance. They could die of starvation. Their only income is the little she earns from her share of a saloon catering to American and British servicemen. When they leave China, the business will go with them. The Contis get no rents from their tenants. Nor can Mr. Conti sell the building, for in these uncertain times no one will buy. Maria's little sister, Nola, helps her father manufacture ersatz liquor in their dining room. Her mother, Ming Chu, knows her family's Italian citizenship is useless; the Contis are trapped. On April 20th, 1949, the Communists shell the British frigate HMS Amethyst on the Yangtze River. The Woosung forts are in flames. Maria's lover, American Army Captain Thaddeus Huell, must evacuate with  his unit before he can get the Contis out. Love, a killing, survival--these are Maria's story. Excerpt Mao Tse-tung's men stood poised like whetted blades for the coming fight. They were massed at hundreds of camps starting opposite Anking up to Chinkiang. Ignored for the time being, Nanking crouched in between. Its Nationalist shore batteries were useless. On the morning of April 19th the British frigate Amethyst, with her complement of 183 officers and men and sixteen-year-old seamen-cadets, sailed down the Whangpo River to Woosung. Because of its position at the mouth of the Whangpo leading to Shanghai, Wooing had been used over time as a fort. The ship made approximately 100 miles that day, then anchored for the night....The captain, a man named Bernard Skinner, knew all about Mao's gun emplacements on the north shore. He counted on a peaceable voyage to Nanking, since his ship was a foreign vessel and nothing to do with China's civil war.

The Year of the Rat
Lucille Bellucci captures the desperation of all ages of people caught up in the terror of the unknown of living in war. Families become the only support system, until someone from outside, immune to the war, an American officer, comes to save them. Bellucci has captured the need of people for love in a time of hate, and the response to hopelessness by seeking some small pleasure, some small accomplishment each day. Life was close to unbearable as 12-year-old Nola tries to keep her silkworm eggs alive while the adults around her struggle to keep themselves alive, to exploit others, and to escape their own exploitation by others who can only survive by using them. A great adventure, a great love story, a great view of what was Shanghai among the 'old China hands' at the time of the arrival of Mao Tze Tung. Will make one great motion picture, too! A must read