The Foreign Student

By Susan Choi,

Book cover of The Foreign Student

Book description

"This wonderful hybrid of a novel--a love story, a war story, a novel of manners--introduces a writer of enchanting gifts, a beautiful heart wedded to a beautiful imagination. How else does Susan Choi so fully inhabit characters from disparate backgrounds, with such brilliant wit and insight? The Foreign Student stirs…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

2 authors picked The Foreign Student as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

In 1950s Sewanee, Chang and Katherine slowly fall in love and find that the Souths of Korea and Tennessee are not that different after all, both subject to lingering issues of class, family, race, and civil war. I love the poetic language in this novel, as well as its ambitious story and the complexity invested in every relation.

I never ran into Susan, but I could have. While attending Cornell as an undergrad, she was earning her Master's in Fine Arts right there in Ithaca, NY.  But I knew her work way before this novel came out, because in 1992 I read a short story of hers in Epoch, Cornell’s graduate literary magazine. Now I know nothing of Susan’s personal history, but I had a feeling when I read The Foreign Student that this story, a torrid romance between a Korean man and a Caucasian woman in the mid-1950s Deep South, was truly hers. I’m not saying…

Want books like The Foreign Student?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like The Foreign Student.

Browse books like The Foreign Student

Book cover of The Incendiaries
Book cover of Native Speaker
Book cover of Edinburgh

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,385

readers submitted
so far, will you?

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in romantic love, Tennessee, and Koreans?

Romantic Love 943 books
Tennessee 66 books
Koreans 11 books