Like Flyboys and
Iris Chang’s The Rape of Nanking,
China Diaries revolves around the Japanese atrocities in thirties China
and the events that led to WWII. Mr.
Stannard weaves into the plot the fascinating story of Pan Am’s pioneering history and the saga of four of their Clippers
that fell into harm’s way the day Pearl Harbor was bombed. Unlike those two non-fiction bestsellers, China Diaries is historical fiction wrapped up in mystery, romance and pioneering aviation that some have said
reads like Casablanca
and the Winds of War.
A brief synopsis
It’s 1994. All Captain
Stephen Cannon knows of Anna, his Russian émigré mother, and Alex, his aviation-pioneering
father, is from their China Diaries, their personal journals that chronicle their courtship in China
through Pearl Harbor. Then, after an epic escape from the siege of Hong Kong by Clipper, carrying important documents to the States, they
disappear into the maelstrom in 1943.
From the diaries, Stephen
has always been embittered by the conviction that his mother abandoned him and returned to China with to satisfy carnal desires. Now, fifty years later, he receives a call
from a Chinese exchange student whose great uncle has just emigrated to Hong Kong from the PRC bringing with him Anna’s
Russian map case, journals, a strange medal, and the incredible story of how they escaped the infamous Japanese rape of Nanking,
in 1938.
Beset with revisionist intent on suppressing his mother’s
story, Stephen jets to China to recover the diaries and discover
the real reason why Anna left. In doing so he enters the nineteen-thirties
world of his mother: a China beleaguered with warring political factions, ten
years of Japanese aggression, pioneering aviation, CNAC, the Flying Tigers, flying the hump, espionage, love, betrayal and
an environment where émigré women survived by using their wits and beauty.
Available
from: Ingram, Baker & Taylor, and iUniverse, Inc.
About the Author
Louis Stannard is a professional pilot having accumulated over 23,000 hours in commercial and
military aircraft. He holds a U.S. patent
for airline bidding software and is an avid ocean sailor. Mr. Stannard and his wife Carol lived seven years
in the Caribbean aboard their yacht Sea Jay before he returned to the U.S. to finish China Diaries. Mr. Stannard
has earned a national and an international writing award. They now live in North
Carolina where he writes full time.
ISBN: 0-595-32600-5 · 6 x 9 ·Trade Paper · 394 pages · $24.95
ISBN: 0-595-66652-3· 6 x 9 ·Hardcover · 394 pages · $34.95
