23 Nov / The Mermaid from Jeju by Sumi Hahn [in Booklist]
*STARRED REVIEW
Once upon a time, Junja was a “real” mermaid, a Korean haenyeo – one of the world-renowned freediving women who gather sea life – of Jeju Island. By 2001, she’s spent most of her life as “a pillar of the Korean American community in Philadelphia” when an undetected embolism causes her sudden death. With gorgeous resonance, first-novelist Sumi Hahn – Korean-born, U.S.-raised, Harvard-educated, New Zealand-domiciled – reveals Junja’s astonishing journey across cultures and continents and from mermaid to matron.
In 1944, 18-year-old Junja replaces her mother on the annual climb up Hallasan, where she will fetch the single piglet that will help feed the family throughout the year. By the time she returns the next day, her mother is dying, leaving Junja to care for two younger siblings and her aging grandmother. What is declared a diving accident is revealed to be baseless, fatal torture.
With the ousting of the brutal Japanese colonizers, the island should finally have known peace. But no one can be trusted as Nationalists, rebel Communists, and the incoming U.S. military all vie viciously for control. To survive the precarious turmoil, Junja must “choose a side … [b]eing neutral won’t protect you.” Commingling multigenerational family saga, legends, wrenching love story, ghostly hauntings, and tumultuous history, Hahn creates a transporting masterpiece.
Review: “Fiction,” Booklist, November 1, 2020
Readers: Adult
Published: 2020