"A beautifully constructed cyclical narrative... the manner in which character types and events recur against the cityís shifting backdrop is impossible to forget." — Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

Written by acclaimed Chinese novelist Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow follows Wang Qiyao as she navigates the vicissitudes of Shanghai and Chinese history.

Infatuated with the glitz and glamour of 1940s Hollywood, Wang Qiyao seeks fame in the Miss Shanghai beauty pageant, and this fleeting moment of stardom becomes the pinnacle of her life. During the next four decades, Wang Qiyao indulges in the decadent pleasures of pre-liberation Shanghai, secretly playing mahjong during the antirightist Movement and exchanging lovers on the eve of the Cultural Revolution. Wang Qiyao emerges in the 1980s as a purveyor of "old Shanghai"—a living incarnation of a new, commodified nostalgia that prizes splendor and sophistication—only to become embroiled in a tragedy that echoes the Hollywood noirs of her youth.