Paul French

Strangers on the Praia – The Wartime Jewish Community in Macao – Refugees and Resistance

Sunday, May 3rd, 11 am

Strangers on the Praia - a novella coming out in May, dealing with the niche story of the few, mostly younger Jews women, who moved on from Shanghai to Macao - neutral in WW2 as a Portuguese colony - in the hope that it might be a way back to sanctuary in the UK or US via Lisbon. Macao was essentially the 'Casablanca of the Far East'. Ultimately there were no boats from Macao to Lisbon - though several Jewish refugees did get to Free China via the French treaty port of Kwangchowan near the border with Indo-China and from there to Kunming and then to British India.

Bio: Paul French is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Midnight in Peking and City of Devils. Both now being adapted for TV. Now, in his new novella published in May, Strangers on the Praia, French weaves together the true stories of those Jewish refugees who moved on from Shanghai to seek a possible route to freedom via the neutral Portuguese colony of Macao, “the Casablanca of the Orient”. The delicately balanced neutral enclave became their wartime refuge. Strangers on the Praia relates the story of one young Jewish woman’s struggle for freedom that would prove ultimately an act of brave resistance.