The love story of Martha da Silva--a Chinese orphan and house prostitute--and Thomas Kuyck Van Mierop--a British trader for the East India Company--set in late 18th-century Macao, and her eventual rise to becoming a successful trader in her own right, the richest woman in Macao, and someone with her own name.

They don't publish novels or make movies like this anymore. This story hearkens back to movies like Casablanca and to the novels of Graham Greene. The main difference, though, is that it's more Martha's story than it is Thomas's. And what a story it is. If it had been published now, it would've been politicized and plucked for more pity. As it stands, however, this is a beautiful, beautiful novel--in the narrative, in the characters, in the setting, and in the subtlety. And, perhaps most importantly, it treats the reader in a dignified, intelligent manner.

Three things stuck out to me, an expat living in Asia, that would be particularly insightful for readers unfamiliar with the area. One, it shows how, culturally, there is little regard for the law here. There may be crackdowns on occasion, and people will toe the line for a short period of time after; but, once everything blows over, it's back to business as usual. Two, there is the duality of the superficial exterior that everyone pretends to see, and the actual interior that everyone knows is going on but don't verbally acknowledge. Third, there is the belief that the cultural norms are too difficult for new foreigners to comprehend, and so these foreigners must be protected from the reality by keeping things from them.

I'm reluctant to say more for fear of giving anything away, other than that it's inspired by actual events. Don't let the brevity of this review dissuade you in any way from reading this wonderful story. I haven't given a four-star rating to a work of fiction in over four years now, but this one is definitely deserving of it. I can't for the life of me figure out why this novel isn't more popular than it is.

[NB: This novel is a fictional account of events that have some truth to their structure. If you want to know more about the real-life characters and Austin Coates's deviations from the historical record, you can read an article on it by Rogério Miguel Puga at JSTOR (www.jstor.org/stable/23891933). But it does contain spoilers, so read it at your own discretion.]