For DeWoskin, the city of Shanghai and its Hongkou Jewish settlement are "an example of a country getting it right during World War II when no one else did."

She added, "There are diverging analyses of why the Jewish refugees were permitted to land in Shanghai, but the fact remains: No one else let those refugees in. The outcome was heroic -- survival for thousands of families who would otherwise have been lost. I hope people will take from the novel a way to imagine the ways in which human beings can and should save each other and ourselves by creating such havens. Let's let families land safely when they're fleeing violence and terror in their home countries."