Pachinko

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee is a family epic based on four generations of a Korean family in Japan beginning in the early 1900s.

Sunja, the daughter of an innkeeper in Yeongdo, a small fishing village in Korea, falls for a stranger at the market. She assumes he will marry her, but when she becomes pregnant she discovers that he is already married.

Isak is a minister traveling from the north of Korea on his way to Japan. He seeks out the boarding house that his brother stay in years ago. There he meets Sunja and offers to marry her and take her to Japan with him.

When they arrive in Japan, both are shocked to discover it is not the promise land they were lead to believe. Koreans are required to live in the ghetto. Prejudice controls every part of their lives.

As time passes, the family faces many obstacles. They succeed as well as their station allows. During WWII they find help from a surprising source. Sunja and Isak's sons continue the struggle as the generations continue.

Pachinko is a wonderful book about a minority family in a homogenous country. An instant classic beautifully written. Read it now.

Lee, Min Jin. (2017). Pachinko. New York: Grand Central Publishing.