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by Casey Walker
Luke Slade, a young Congressional aide, begins this business trip to China like all other international travel he's endured with "Lyin' Leo": buried under a slew of diplomatic runarounds, non-functioning cell phones, and humiliation from the Congressman at every turn. But on day two, a new challenge rears its ugly head: Leo goes on a drunken bender and disappears into the night. Unsure what dubious business his corrupt and buffoonish boss had planned, Luke must piece together the Congressman's lies while maintaining appearances with their Chinese contacts.
Amidst the confusion, a little bleary from jet-lag and alcohol, Luke receives a briefcase full of money from the mayor of a rural Chinese province. Luke accepts the "gift" in his daze, but when he later realizes his mistake and tries to return the cash, he discovers even more anxiety-inducing news. The mayor is dead.
As Luke tries to unravel the complex minefield of corruption he's tumbled into, he must also confront his own role in the events. Unwitting marionette? Fall guy? Or perhaps someone more capable of moral compromise than he would have liked to believe. Last Days in Shanghai is an unforgettable debut by a writer to watch. It's both a hold-on-to-your-seat thriller and a pitch-perfect exploration of present day China?the country's rapacious capitalism, the shocking boom of its cities and the wholesale eradication of its traditions.
"Starred Review. Walker's shockingly plausible literary debut...[is] an outrageous tale of embezzlement into a rollicking moral drama." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. Slimy all-American graft oozes from beneath the economic aspirations of contemporary China in this witty, illuminating thriller." - Kirkus
"Walker's smart writing on a host of issues, including China's frenzied construction boom, which has paved over ancient traditions block by block, and the sorry state of American politics, gives this cautionary tale frisson." - Booklist
"Last Days in Shanghai is about how easily we live our lives in thrall to our own evasions and how fervently we hope for redemption, and its protagonist, who imagines himself to be hardboiled but is really mostly softheaded, is one of those functionaries who helps our corrupt global system toot along despite being all confusion and hopeless compromise." - Jim Sheppard, NBA nominee and author of Like You'd Understand, Anyway
"Money, sex, and free enterprise: American politics isn't as bad as you think it is. It's much worse, and Casey Walker's truly brilliant first novel about Americans in China pioneers a kind of hallucinatory realism on the subject that leaves the reader laughing and appalled and scared." - Charles Baxter
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