Pachinko

By Min Jin Lee,

Book cover of Pachinko

Book description

* The million-copy bestseller*
* National Book Award finalist *
* One of the New York Times's 10 Best Books of 2017 *
* Selected for Emma Watson's Our Shared Shelf book club *

'This is a captivating book... Min Jin Lee's novel takes us through four generations and each…

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Why read it?

14 authors picked Pachinko as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This heartwarming, multigenerational drama about the Korean community in Japan swept me into another time and place. Born and raised in a poor fishing village in Japanese-occupied Korea, Sunja makes an impulsive decision in the pursuit of love that transforms the trajectory of her life.

Thoughtful, resilient, and fiercely independent, Sunja was a relatable character whom I desperately wanted to see thrive. I felt her heartache when she left her beloved Korea and shared her indignation at the discrimination she and her family experienced in Japan. Expertly crafted and keenly observed, Pachinko shows us how history and politics shape the…

From Elizabeth's list on immersion into world history and culture.

Well, apart from the fact that she lives in Harlem, where I spent many years, I am obsessively enthralled with South Korean History…always marveling at its meteoric rise from being one of the poorest countries in 1953 to today being a super economy. I believe they have some of the best writers I have ever read.

I loved the book because it introduced me to Korean culture and the historically less-than-fair treatment of Koreans living in Japan. It’s a family saga that spans five generations, has multiple protagonists, and has an omniscient narrative. I loved how the writer made me see into the characters’ heads and how their thoughts and actions didn’t always align.

I loved this book because it shows generations of family sacrifice and how the decisions we make in our lifetime can live on for decades after we pass.

I rushed to read this book every evening and had to pull myself away. It was so amazing to me that this author could weave through years and years of family history in a clear, coherent, and powerful way. 

I picked up Pachinko to learn more about Korean culture and the ways twentieth-century Koreans suffered at the hands of the Japanese—bookending what I knew about the Holocaust.

I finished it with a vastly fuller sense of the potential impact of bias in any advanced society. Lee doesn’t hold a mirror directly up to American culture, but there were many times that was the effect for me.

Characters I cared about wrestled with nationality, gender, sexual identity, ambition, and altruism in strongly emblematic ways, but always as fleshed-out individuals whose joys and sufferings grabbed me like they were members of…

This novel illustrates a part of history I had no knowledge of: the story of Korean immigrants to Japan and their families, who are never accepted as Japanese, even after two and three generations.

In some ways, it’s a typical immigration-based epic, but written elegantly and with characters that you truly care about and who you truly want to succeed. I couldn’t put it down until the end.

Wow! I felt intimately connected to the family depicted in this turbulent but big-hearted saga. I rooted for them at every turn, from their humble beginnings in Korea through their struggles as immigrants in Japan. The world changes dramatically from 1910 to 1989, but despite tragedy, they hold tight to their values of loyalty, hard work, independence, and honesty. Inspiring.

I love historical fiction; if you read my book, you will see I use history to convey a message. I believe in leaving the past behind, but it is ok to look back and see where we are now. It helps focus. And Pachinko does that. It shows three generations of Korean families and all that they have gone through. She uses historical fiction to teach about the past and to see how far we have moved from there while at the same time touching the hearts of readers. Same stories of today, same feelings, same family situation but in…

From Eduardo's list on to chill out on a calm summer evening.

The unplanned pregnancy at the beginning of Pachinko starts a generations-long saga. In the early 1900s, Sunja is a young, innocent Korean woman who is seduced by an older man, a gangster who already has a wife. Sunja is rescued from the shame of an out-of-wedlock birth by a pastor who marries her and brings her to Japan, where they have a second child. The novel brings to life the conflict between the Korean and Japanese people, through the lives of Sunja’s offspring, taking us through WWII all the way to the 1980s. Every sentence Lee writes is gorgeous, and…

From Jennifer's list on unplanned pregnancy.

The research and imagination that went into the world-building of this book are breathtaking, from the events that shape the lives of three generations of a Korean family living in Japan, to what they wore, ate, saw around them, and how they responded to immense hardship with skill, creativity, and determination. Pachinko illuminates for the reader a rich and specific pocket of history, that also speaks to the universal struggle of marginalized people everywhere.

From Jenny's list on historical fiction by diverse women.

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