When I was contacted by the author, Thomas Chin, to ask if I would consider reading and reviewing a copy of his debut novel, Unpredictable Winds, I didn’t know what to expect, but wow, what an amazing book with a beautiful story.
Unpredictable Winds begins at the outbreak of WWII in Shanghai, China, and whilst WWII is predominantly in the background, the story focuses on the civil war, which ended in 1949 with Communist control and how the characters in the story are affected by this.
Ultimately, this is a complicated love story with many twists and turns and a case of - Will the man get the girl? The author conveys such exquisite imagery throughout the book as the story spans tragedy, heartbreak, love and death.
I’m sure many of Thomas Chin’s readers will know little or nothing about the culture of which he writes so beautifully, and I was definitely amongst them. I may have done a small amount of Googling as I read the book, as I was so interested in what he was writing about and my husband got bored with me asking questions! I learnt about the change from nationalism to communism in China in 1949. Something I knew nothing about before and it made me research a little more.
One of the many topics in the book that intrigued me was Confucianism. Something else I had heard of but knew nothing about. This is what Google told me - Confucianism believes in ancestor worship and human-centred virtues for living a peaceful life. The golden rule of Confucianism is “Do not do unto others what you would not want others to do unto you.” Maybe we should all take a leaf out of Confucius’ book. The world might be a less violent and happier place.
I would highly recommend Thomas Chin’s debut novel to anyone with an interest in historical fiction and I would love to read more from this author.
Thank you to Thomas Chin for the opportunity to read and review Unpredictable Winds.
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