In an exclusive Seoul neigbourhood, is a cheap apartment building where a married couple and several single young women live. Minho is a talented artist, Kyuri, after multiple plastic surgeries, is a beautiful room salon worker in debt, and Ara a hairstylist.
This contemporary tale not only delves into women struggling to survive in an expensive city but explores the attitude of the rich who use and abuse those they consider to be on a lower peg than themselves. A must read for those who are curious about Korea’s social hierarchy and the lives some are forced to live.
A novelist lives alone on a remote island since her parents have been removed by the memory police. It is not only people who have disappeared, but objects too—hats, the ferry service to the northern island—things that are also removed from the inhabitants’ memories. Every now and then when she wakes, she senses something else has disappeared.
In 1919 Pyongyang, Jade is sold to Madam Silver who will train her as a courtesan. But when Madam Silver’s daughter, Luna is raped, she sends Luna, Lotus, and Jade to her cousin, Dani in Seoul to hide Luna’s pregnancy. Aunt Dani continues their training while JungHo heads south to Seoul in search of a better life after his father’s death. Under Japanese occupation, underground movements form in the hope of gaining independence.
This novel takes place over fifty years following the lives of these characters and Korea’s struggle to break free from Japan’s strangling grip.
In 1930s China, one tragedy after another seems to pursue Meilin. As a young wife she becomes a widow. Then with her four-year-old son, Renshu they are forced to flee the family home when the Japanese army approaches. After weeks of travelling by train, then on foot they arrive at a remote inland town where she believes they’ll be safe. Her brother-in-law and wife join them, but as the days pass, Japanese bomber planes reach their village. When finally the war ends in 1945, they move to Shanghai, until the Chinese Communist Party and the Kuomintang under Chiang Kai-shek fight for supremacy. Where can they escape to when it seems that their lives are in danger once again?
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