The novel is the story of the 1927 Shanghai massacre as experienced by several fictional characters representing various points of view including Chinese and Russian Communists, terrorists, Western businessmen and dilettantes, and members of the factions of the Kuomintang. In addition to the multiway political strife, there is personal animosity, philosophical existential angst and betrayal. Malraux was an interesting character himself, perhaps somewhat of a self-invented con man (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/10/books/review/malraux-one-mans-fate.html), but I don't think any less of the novel for that - after all, he did write it.
Ultimately, I found the story moving (Nabokov apparently ridiculed it as melodramatic), but the text was sometimes awkward and difficult to read. It won the Prix Goncourt in 1933 and I suspect that the problem is with the translation. There is another English translation by Alastair MacDonald; it is out of print, but I recommend looking for it.
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Randomly chosen examples of these not infrequent difficulties are:
"If you don't have confidence in the International, mustn't belong to the Party." [Is there a word missing here?]

" 'Yes, Gisors, Kyoshi.(1)'
1. Kyo is an abbreviation." [Is abbreviation the correct English word to mean nickname?]
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And...a favorite quote that might be useful in the future:
"When you're through prostituting yourselves to the State, you take your cowardice for wisdom, and believe that to be a Venus de Milo all you need is to be armless..."

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Shanghai, 1927, y la revolución está en el aire. A medida que la ciudad se ve atrapada en la violencia y el derramamiento de sangre, la vida de cuatro personas se ve alterada inexorablemente: el idealista e intelectural Kyo Gisors, uno de los líderes de la insurrección comunista, que también está tratando de lidiar con su propio conflicto matrimonial; Ch'en Ta Erh, un asesino y terrorista brutalizado por el asesinato; Baron de Clappique, un jugador francés, traficante de opio y traficante de armas; y el revolucionario ruso Katov, que observa con calma cómo se desarrollan los acontecimientos, hasta que tiene que hacer el último sacrificio. Cada uno de estos hombres debe tratar de resolver sus conflictos personales en medio de la agitación política, la conspiración y la traición.

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I read an English translation of an early edition. If you are interested in the Communist uprising and its suppression in Shanghai in 1927 or how those things might work, then please add some stars. This seems to be very realistic historical fiction. ( )

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