The Lost and Forgotten Languages of Shanghai, By Ruiyan Xu

Battle for affection loses something in translation

Ruiyan Xu's debut novel brings China and the US into focus when businessman Li Jing suffers brain damage in an explosion in Shanghai, and a US neurologist, Rosalyn, is flown in to help his speech: he has forgotten Chinese and can only speak in the English he learnt as a child.

At times, the novel becomes a battle between two women, Rosalyn and Li's wife, Meiling, for his love: Rosalyn, lonely after a divorce, seeks solace, and Meiling struggles to cope with her strange and newly injured husband. At other times, the novel is a father-son lament.

Xu's present tense narrative is distracting – past tense flashbacks show how much better that tense would have suited the whole novel.