Book Launch with W. Michael Blumenthal | "City of Masks: A Novel of Shanghai"

Now ‘Mike’ Blumenthal presents his second novel, *City of Masks*: a fast-paced thriller about con artists, gangsters and spies in Shanghai during the Second World War.

Blumenthal’s book paints an authentic picture of cosmopolitan Shanghai in its final days before and during the Japanese occupation. As a refugee from the Nazi dictatorship, W. Michael Blumenthal himself lived in Shanghai for eight years during this period, including a spell in the refugee ghetto established by the Japanese. As a post-war immigrant to the USA, he can look back on a successful and extremely varied career in academia, business and public service – as a diplomat, cabinet minister and author.

W. Michael Blumenthal is the author of two non-fiction books: *The Invisible Wall* (1998) and *From Exile to Washington* (2013). His first novel, *The Payday Conspiracy*, was published in 2024.

IN ENGLISH