Pachinko

"Pachinko" by Min Jin Lee is a powerful million-copy bestseller about a Korean family's new life in Japan. In a small Korean fishing village, a club-footed and cleft-lipped man is married to a young girl in 1911. They only have Sunja, their adored daughter. When Sunja get impregnated by a married yakuza, the family is destined to a life in the shadows. But then the Christian minister, Isak, offers Sunja a new life in Japan as his wife. The family agrees and Sunja has to follow an unknown man to a hostile new country where she cannot speak the language and has no relatives. Through eight decades and several generations Min Jin Lee unfolds an epic family tale in "Pachinko" about resilience, identity and compassion.

"Pachinko" by Min Jin Lee is a powerful million-copy bestseller about a Korean family's new life in Japan. In a small Korean fishing village, a club-footed and cleft-lipped man is married to a young girl in 1911. They only have Sunja, their adored daughter. When Sunja get impregnated by a married yakuza, the family is destined to a life in the shadows. But then the Christian minister, Isak, offers Sunja a new life in Japan as his wife. The family agrees and Sunja has to follow an unknown man to a hostile new country where she cannot speak the language and has no relatives. Through eight decades and several generations Min Jin Lee unfolds an epic family tale in "Pachinko" about resilience, identity and compassion.

I årene inden første verdenskrig falder den unge koreanske fiskerdatter Sunja for en velhavende fremmed. Han lover hende en gylden fremtid, men da hun opdager, at hun er gravid, og at hendes store kærlighed er gift, blegner Sunjas udsigter pludselig. Som en sidste udvej siger hun ja til en ung, svagelig præsts ægteskabstilbud, da han er på gennemrejse på vej til Japan. Dette bliver begyndelsen på en familiesaga om usædvanlige mennesker i eksil fra et hjemland, de aldrig har kendt. I Japan mødes Sunjas slægt af voldsomme racemæssige uretfærdigheder og stor fattigdom, men glæden slipper også ind mellem sprækkerne, mens Sunja og hendes efterkommere finder vej og plads i det japanske samfund. En roman om ambitioner og modgang, fordomme og traditioner, arv og ophav, om det at høre hjemme.

A New York Times Top Ten Book of the Year and National Book Award finalist, Pachinko is an "extraordinary epic" of four generations of a poor Korean immigrant family as they fight to control their destiny in 20th-century Japan ( San Francisco Chronicle ). 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 2018 DAYTON 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 "There could only be a few winners, and a lot of losers. And yet we played on, because we had hope that we might be the lucky ones." In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a crippled fisherman, falls for a wealthy stranger at the seashore near her home in Korea. He promises her the world, but when she discovers she is pregnant--and that her lover is married--she refuses to be bought. Instead, 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. Richly told and profoundly moving, Pachinko is a story of love, sacrifice, ambition, and loyalty. From bustling street markets to the halls of Japan's finest universities to the pachinko parlors of the criminal underworld, Lee's complex and passionate characters--strong, stubborn women, devoted sisters and sons, fathers shaken by moral crisis--survive and thrive against the indifferent arc of history. *Includes reading group guide* p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Helvetica; color: #1f4e79} span.s1 {font-kerning: none}

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.

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.