8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE 2024 WILLIAM SAROYAN INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR WRITING LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2024 LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 WILBUR SMITH ADVENTURE WRITING PRIZE 'Captivating' New York Times 'Dazzling' Financial Times 'Heartbreaking' Monica Ali SLAVE. ESCAPE-ARTIST. MURDERER. TERRORIST. SPY. LOVER. MOTHER. TRICKSTER . At the Golden Sunset retirement home, it is not unusual for residents to invent stories. So when elderly Ms Mook first begins to unspool her memories, the obituarist listening to her is sceptical. Stories of captivity, friendship, murder, assumed identities and spying. A life that moves from WWII Indonesia to Busan during the Korean war; from cold-war Pyongyang to a Protestant church in China. The adventures are so colourful and various, at times so unbelievable. Surely they can't all belong to the same woman. Can they? 8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2024, announced on 5th March 2024.

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE 2024 WILLIAM SAROYAN INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR WRITING LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2024 LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 WILBUR SMITH ADVENTURE WRITING PRIZE 'Captivating' New York Times 'Dazzling' Financial Times 'Heartbreaking' Monica Ali SLAVE. ESCAPE-ARTIST. MURDERER. TERRORIST. SPY. LOVER. MOTHER. TRICKSTER . At the Golden Sunset retirement home, it is not unusual for residents to invent stories. So when elderly Ms Mook first begins to unspool her memories, the obituarist listening to her is sceptical. Stories of captivity, friendship, murder, assumed identities and spying. A life that moves from WWII Indonesia to Busan during the Korean war; from cold-war Pyongyang to a Protestant church in China. The adventures are so colourful and various, at times so unbelievable. Surely they can't all belong to the same woman. Can they? 8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2024, announced on 5th March 2024.

"Fantastically original doesn't begin to describe this exhilarating globe-spanning, decade-hopping masterpiece. Lee has achieved the impossible -- from a fractured century of agonies and betrayals, she has woven a novel of immense beauty and regeneration." -- Junot D?az, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Longlisted for the Women's Prize in Fiction. Shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing Joining the acclaimed ranks of Pachinko and A Woman is No Man, a riveting and genre-bending debut of love and survival, set in the demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea. Life near the North Korean border is a zero-sum game, an ongoing battle in which you either win or you lose. This dangerous, shadowed netherworld is home to an unforgettable woman known only as the "trickster." Inspired by the story of Lee's great aunt, one of the oldest women to escape alone from North Korea, 8 Lives of a Century Old Trickster consists of eight dark and spellbinding chapters that follow this remarkable character and her family as they struggle to survive during the most turbulent times of modern Korean history. Mirinae Lee's trickster is a shapeshifter--throughout the course of these interconnected chapters she is a slave, an escape artist, a murderer, a terrorist, a spy, a lover, and a mother--a woman who must often choose the unthinkable to survive war and conquest in Korea. Her story is a beguiling, complex tale of love and survival that will keep you riveted--and speculating--until the very end thanks to Lee's brilliant talent for sleight of hand. A fascinating look at survival, trauma, and family, 8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster is an incredible literary debut from a bright new talent.

"Fantastically original doesn't begin to describe this exhilarating globe-spanning, decade-hopping masterpiece. Lee has achieved the impossible -- from a fractured century of agonies and betrayals, she has woven a novel of immense beauty and regeneration." -- Junot D?az, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Longlisted for the Women's Prize in Fiction. Shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing Joining the acclaimed ranks of Pachinko and A Woman is No Man, a riveting and genre-bending debut of love and survival, set in the demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea. Life near the North Korean border is a zero-sum game, an ongoing battle in which you either win or you lose. This dangerous, shadowed netherworld is home to an unforgettable woman known only as the "trickster." Inspired by the story of Lee's great aunt, one of the oldest women to escape alone from North Korea, 8 Lives of a Century Old Trickster consists of eight dark and spellbinding chapters that follow this remarkable character and her family as they struggle to survive during the most turbulent times of modern Korean history. Mirinae Lee's trickster is a shapeshifter--throughout the course of these interconnected chapters she is a slave, an escape artist, a murderer, a terrorist, a spy, a lover, and a mother--a woman who must often choose the unthinkable to survive war and conquest in Korea. Her story is a beguiling, complex tale of love and survival that will keep you riveted--and speculating--until the very end thanks to Lee's brilliant talent for sleight of hand. A fascinating look at survival, trauma, and family, 8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster is an incredible literary debut from a bright new talent.