Paul French's new book, Strangers on the Praia: A Tale of Refugees and Resistance in Wartime Macao, tells the little-known history of Jewish refugees in Shanghai that fled to the neutral Portuguese enclave. Featuring French's trademark research, and based on an amalgam of actual people, it might be characterized as “might have happened” history, albeit incomplete, as French admits. Yet so much in the book does seem complete, giving the reader a vivid idea of how some Jewish refugees left the relative safety of Shanghai for Macau in order to find better living conditions.

– Susan Blumberg-Kason, author of Good Chinese Wife, Asian Review Of Books