One of the New York Times 100 Best Books of the 21st CenturyIn this New York Times bestseller, four generations of a poor Korean immigrant family fight to control their destiny in 20th-century Japan–the inspiration for the television series on Apple TV+. In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a crippled fisherman, falls for a wealthy stranger. When she discovers she is pregnant–and that her lover is married–she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle, sickly minister passing through on his way to Japan. But her decision to abandon her home, and to reject her son's powerful father, sets off a dramatic saga that will echo down through the generations.
Profoundly moving,
Pachinko is a story of love, sacrifice, ambition, and loyalty.
*Includes reading group guide*
NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2017 * A USA TODAY TOP TEN OF 2017 * JULY PICK FOR THE PBS NEWSHOUR-NEW YORK TIMES BOOK CLUB NOW READ THIS * FINALIST FOR THE 2018DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE* WINNER OF THE MEDICI BOOK CLUB PRIZE
Roxane Gay's Favorite Book of 2017, Washington Post
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * #1 BOSTON GLOBE BESTSELLER * USA TODAY BESTSELLER * WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER * WASHINGTON POST BESTSELLER
Both sweepingly ambitious in scope and deeply personal, PACHINKO follows one Korean family's desperate struggles and hard-won triumphs across decades and generations-from the Japanese annexation in 1910 through the Great Depression and World War II, all the way up to the late 1980s. The chronicle begins humbly with a hardworking family: a fisherman, his wife, and their sole surviving child. Though the family endures their fair share of hardships, they mark the beginning of a long line of descendants whose adversities, passions, and joys pervade this remarkable account of Korean history. Hoonie, a saintly father born with a cleft palate and club foot, is only the beginning of a Dickensian cast of characters, exceptional men and women in exile from a homeland they never knew and caught in the indifferent arc of history: a young, unwed mother afraid of social disgrace; the tubercular minister who saves her; a powerful gangster who pulls strings to control his loved ones' lives from afar, and many more. Although years pass and the family evolves drastically from its modest beginnings, a strong sense of shared cultural history ties them together and gives their lives deep roots. As they experience great joy, dark yearning, and moments of triumph and despair, this hugely satisfying novel explores the enduring questions of faith, family, culture, and identity.
