The novel was translated into English twice, both translations appearing in 1934, one by Haakon Chevalier under the title Man's Fate, published by Harrison Smith & Robert Haas in New York and republished by Random House as part of their Modern Library from 1936 on, and the other by Alastair MacDonald under the title Storm in Shanghai, published by Methuen in London and republished, still by Methuen, in 1948 as Man's Estate, to become a Penguin pocket in 1961.

The four primary protagonists are Chen Ta Erh (whose name is spelled Tchen in the French original of the book), Kyoshi ("Kyo") Gisors, the Soviet emissary Katow, and Baron Clappique.

After witnessing Kyo's death, he watches with a kind of calm detachment as his fellow revolutionaries are taken out one by one, to be thrown alive into the chamber of a steam locomotive waiting outside, intending, when his turn comes, to use his own cyanide capsule.

But hearing two young Chinese activists talk with trembling fear of being burned alive, he gives them the cyanide, as there is only enough for two, so that he himself is left to face the more fearsome death.

Since its publication, the novel has an estimated total sale (in French) of 5 million copies, all editions considered, placing the book as a bestseller in the history of the Prix Goncourt.

[1] The journalist Christopher Hitchens, while noting that Malraux had spent almost no time in China, claimed that the novel "pointed up the increasing weight of Asia in world affairs; it described epic moments of suffering and upheaval, in Shanghai especially (it was nearly filmed by Sergei Eisenstein); and it demonstrated a huge respect for Communism and for Communists while simultaneously evoking the tragedy of a revolution betrayed by Moscow.

[6] Independent producer Sidney Beckerman hired Costa-Gavras to adapt the novel and direct in 1979, but the project was abandoned when the Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China denied permission to film in the country.