David Rotenberg
Packed with insight and adventure, David Rotenberg’s critically acclaimed novels are driven by large and ominous forces at work. An exceptional storyteller of broad imagination David delivers intriguing and often gifted characters, exotic settings, and wonderfully nefarious plots.
His latest book City Rising hits all those notes and as Book One of the Shanghai Tetralogy, launches an epic tale of that city’s centuries-long transformation towards the modern metropolis of today.
On the Hua Shan (the Holy Mountain) 250 years before Christ, the most powerful man in the world, the First Emperor bequeaths a talisman - a narwhal tusk with carvings depicting the growth of Shanghai for the next 2500 years - to his three trusted followers: the Bodyguard, his favourite Courtesan, and his Head Confucian. The warning from the First Emperor before he commits suicide is to watch for the White Ships on Water and so the progeny of the three who are entrusted with the Tusk do. Then, in 1841 they arrive - British Men of War ships. And opium.
City Rising, From the Holy Mountain tells the story of two destitute Baghdadi Jews who become opium lords, their battles against the powerful British opium companies, and the boys’ eventual love of the City at the Bend in the River – Shanghai.
City Rising – From the Holy Mountain, The Shanghai Tetralogy/Book One. David Rotenberg. At Bay Press. Published November 9, 2023.
"An epic [series] spanning thousands of years with larger-than-life characters and page-turning qualities."
–MacLeans
"Rotenberg’s take on the street life, bureaucracy, and sheer mass of Shanghai cleverly captures a wonderful, baffling city."
–Toronto Star
Next Event
Book Launch: City Rising
order today from Ben McNally Books, Toronto
More details coming soon!