Shortlisted for the Booker Prize

England, the 1930s.

Christopher Banks has become the country's most celebrated detective, his cases the talk of London society. Yet one unsolved...

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize

England, the 1930s.

Christopher Banks has become the country's most celebrated detective, his cases the talk of London society. Yet one unsolved crime has always haunted him: the mysterious disappearance of his parents, in old Shanghai, when he was a small boy.

Moving between inter-war London and Shanghai, When We Were Orphans is a remarkable story of memory, intrigue and the need to return.