A novel of memory and loss, set between London of the 1930s and Shanghai between the wars. England 1930s, Christopher Banks has become the country's most celebrated detective, his cases the talk of London society. Yet one unsolved crime has always haunted him: The mysterious disappearance of his parents in old Shanghai, when he was a small boy. Moving between London and Shanghai of the inter-war years, When We Were Orphans is a remarkable story of memory, intrigue and the need to return.