About
Weina Dai Randel is the Wall Street Journal bestselling, award-winning author of four historical novels, Night Angels, The Last Rose of Shanghai, The Moon in the Palace and The Empress of Bright Moon, a historical duology about Wu Zetian, China’s only female emperor.
Weina is the winner of the RWA RITA Award, the National Jewish Book Award finalist, and the Goodreads Choice Award “Best Historical Fiction” nominee. Her latest novel, Night Angels, was longlisted for the Mass Book Awards in 2024. Her novels have been translated into fourteen languages, including Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Hebrew.
Born in China, Weina came to the United States at twenty-four, when she switched from Chinese to English and began to speak, write and dream in English. After living in Texas for many years, she now resides in Massachusetts.
Featured Work
Night Angels
From the author of The Last Rose of Shanghai comes a profoundly moving novel about a diplomatic couple who risked their lives to help Viennese Jews escape the Nazis, based on the true story of Dr. Ho Fengshan, Righteous Among the Nations.
1938. Dr. Ho Fengshan, consul general of China, is posted in Vienna with his American wife, Grace. Shy and ill at ease with the societal obligations of diplomats’ wives, Grace is an outsider in a city beginning to feel the sweep of the Nazi dragnet. When Grace forms a friendship with her Jewish tutor, Lola Schnitzler, Dr. Ho requests that Grace keep her distance. His instructions are to maintain amicable relations with the Third Reich, and he and Grace are already under their vigilant eye.
But when Lola’s family is subjugated to a brutal pogrom, Dr. Ho decides to issue them visas to Shanghai. As violence against the Jews escalates after Kristallnacht and threats mount, Dr. Ho must issue thousands more to help Jews escape Vienna before World War II explodes.
Based on a remarkable true story, Night Angels explores the risks brave souls took and the love and friendship they built and lost while fighting against incalculable evil.
Other Works
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The Last Rose of Shanghai
2021
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The Moon in the Palace
2016
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The Empress of Bright Moon
2016
Awards and Recognition
- Longlisted for the Mass Book Awards 2024
- National Jewish Book Award Finalist
- Winner of Romance Writers of America RITA Award in 2017
- Goodreads Choice Awards Best Historical Fiction semi-finalist