--- title: Shanghailanders: 100 Must-Read Books of 2024 description: Find out why "Shanghailanders" is on TIME's list of the must-read books of the year. canonical: https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172748/shanghailanders/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-11-13T13:24:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-03T00:43:20.294Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: 'Shanghailanders' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2024 og:description: Here's why it made the list og:url: https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172748/shanghailanders/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta21e87260ef60398/698a8d09b3fce31e050d2806/Shanghailanders-Juli-Min.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 'Shanghailanders' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2024 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Shanghailanders' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2024 twitter:description: Here's why it made the list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta21e87260ef60398/698a8d09b3fce31e050d2806/Shanghailanders-Juli-Min.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Nov 13, 2024 # Shanghailanders by [Shannon Carlin](https://time.com/author/shannon-carlin/) ## Shannon Carlin Carlin is a contributor for TIME.  Juli Min’s debut, _Shanghailanders,_ is an ambitious family drama told entirely in reverse. The novel begins in 2040 with Leo Yang, an aging Chinese real-estate investor who finds himself drifting apart from his elegant Japanese French wife Eko, their precocious eldest daughters Yumi and Yoko, and the baby of the family, aspiring actress Kiko. To understand how this happened, Min offers readers the gift of hindsight. She follows the family back in time to 2014, dissecting pivotal moments in their lives to show their impact on the family dynamic. What soon becomes clear, thanks to the book’s immersive structure, is that the Yangs have spent much of the last three decades falling apart only to put themselves back together again. **Buy Now:** _Shanghailanders_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9781954118607) | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/48zEYQN) | [Barnes & Noble](https://fave.co/4fBAlYS) These are independent reviews of the products mentioned, but TIME receives a commission when purchases are made through affiliate links at no additional cost to the purchaser. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172748/shanghailanders/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172748/shanghailanders/"},"headline":"Shanghailanders","datePublished":"2024-11-13T13:24:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:43:20.294Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172748/shanghailanders/","keywords":["Books","E-Commerce","list","franchise"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta21e87260ef60398/698a8d09b3fce31e050d2806/Shanghailanders-Juli-Min.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Shannon Carlin","jobTitle":"Carlin is a contributor for TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/shannon-carlin/"}],"creator":"Shannon Carlin","articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta21e87260ef60398/698a8d09b3fce31e050d2806/Shanghailanders-Juli-Min.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172748/shanghailanders/","name":"Shanghailanders"}}]}] ```