Last Moments of a World is the true story of a girl's coming of age in pre-war Shanghai. Margaret lives with her parents and her siblings Luke, Jane, and Veronica in a large house on Dixwell Road, in Shanghai's International Concession. Part Chinese and part European, Margaret has an understanding of both cultures because of her special relationships with the servants, such as her nanny, Baby-Amah, and the cook, Dahsoo. But the servant who is to become her special friend is Ah-May, the young daughter of Small Amah. Ah-May, although uneducated, has great common sense and it is to her that Margaret turns when she is troubled. When war breaks out in Shanghai, Margaret's comfortable life is changed forever. Margaret and her family adapt, but she must eventually decide whether life in post-revolutionary Shanghai is for her. This book is full of memorable characters and incidents which show how life was in Old Shanghai, the city once known as "The Paris of the East". It was chosen as a Reader's Digest Condensed Books selection in 1980.

At first I didn't even realize this book existed on my home bookshelf. But I didn't have anything else interesting to read, so I tried it out, and once I started, I couldn't put it down.

What captures me in this book is that the setting and characters absorb me into it, it's so descriptive and captures each character's feelings and emotions. The plot is actually quite complex but the author makes you understand everything in it so you don't get confused or bored. Based on the history of the notorious opium trade, various characters involved in the hierarchy of different sides of the trade, China and England, try to make the world realize that opium is dangerous and deadly. They encounter many attacks because they possess this belief, and despite that there is evilness going on in the background plotting against their lives. From China there is a man named Jin-see who meets a man from England named Donald, they both set up an organization to abolish the trade of opium. Thisbook takes place over the lives of those people for about 30 years, introducing their sons and daughters involved in the abolition of this trade. find out more in this action-filled book.