THE SONG OF THE JADE LILY

Saskia Maarleveld narrates this dual-time-period audiobook with care and empathy. With the help of well-placed connections, 13-year-old Romy Bernfeld and her parents, who are Jewish, flee Nazi-occupied Austria for Shanghai, one of the few places in the world where no visa is required for entry. The contemporary story concerns Romy's granddaughter, Alexandra, who travels from Australia to Shanghai to learn about the origins of her late mother, who was adopted from China by her grandparents. Maarleveld excels at creating emotionally nuanced male and female characters and is adept with a variety of accents, including American, Australian, Chinese, and German. She seamlessly shifts between time periods, and her comfortable pacing and skilled phrasing appreciably enhance this multigenerational listen. M.J. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2019]