All the Flowers in Shanghai is Jepson’s stunning debut novel. Set in 1930s Shanghai,the Paris of the East, but where following the path of duty still takes precedence over personal desires, a young Chinese woman named Feng finds herself in an arranged marriage to a wealthy businessman. In the enclosed world of her new household-a place of public ceremony and private cruelty-she learns that, above all else, she must bear a male heir. Ruthless and embittered by the life that has been forced on her, Feng seeks revenge by doing the unthinkable. Years later, she must come to a reckoning with the decisions she has made to assure her place in family and society, before the entire country is caught up in the fast-flowing tide of revolution.
Gabriel Allen M.P.
Gabriel Allen, a member of Parliament, turns out to be a clerk who escaped from a shipwreck and established himself as a wealthy industrialist. His son, Frank Allen, is found, after many adventures, to be the son of his dead former employer. The villain Ruskoff is lost and all ends well for our hero.