Emily “Mickey” Hahn is a woman that has lived life years ahead her times. Emily Hahn is a writer and a traveler, a daughter, a sister and a mother. Emily Hahn is a person that has not followed the rules, but created her own. Emily Hahn is above and beyond all, a woman.

Mickey was raised in a half Jewish family in St. Louis. Her parents were very progressive and as her mother, she has challenged a lot the gender roles, as they were in the 1930s and onwards. She drank alcohol when it was illegal in the US, she smoke cigars and she got a mining engineering degree, when no women were present in the Engineering department of the University of Wisconsin.

Emily Hahn had one thing on her mind, live life as she wanted. If anyone opposed to that, it was not her problem. Therefore, before she even decided to become a writer, she enrolled in all men College of Engineering and got a degree in mining engineering. Though a conventional office job was not her thing, she moved to New York, when Chicago did not fit her, along with her sister Helen. She became a member of the literary society there and started her long writing career when one of her stories appeared in “The New Yorker” magazine. She traveled the world. Europe, Africa and Asia were her biggest longest trips. In Asia, first in Shanghai, she made her presence known to the local community. She started an unconventional relationship with a Chinese scholar based on the Chinese way of doing things. When war hit Shanghai’s door, Mickey moved out in order to write a biography of the most influential women in China at the time, the Soong sisters. Later on she settled in Hong Kong, where she met the love of her life and father of her two daughters, Charles Boxer.

In her writing accomplishments one may find more than fifty books, either fictional or not, and hundreds of articles, short stories and poems. Her unique way of writing can be found in all those books but not in this one. Yet again, it is one very well written book, making a considerable effort on describing the adventures of Emily Hahn in the US and the world.

The reviewed copy was a kind offer of NetGalley.