{"id":47507,"date":"2020-11-23T11:12:41","date_gmt":"2020-11-23T16:12:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=47507"},"modified":"2020-11-18T08:49:13","modified_gmt":"2020-11-18T13:49:13","slug":"the-mermaid-from-jeju-by-sumi-hahn-in-booklist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-mermaid-from-jeju-by-sumi-hahn-in-booklist\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mermaid from Jeju by Sumi Hahn [in Booklist]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"*STARRED REVIEW
\n<\/strong>Once upon a time, Junja was a \u201creal\u201d mermaid, a Korean haenyeo <\/em>\u2013 one of the world-renowned freediving women who gather sea life \u2013 of Jeju Island. By 2001, she\u2019s spent most of her life as \u201ca pillar of the Korean American community in Philadelphia\u201d when an undetected embolism causes her sudden death. With gorgeous resonance, first-novelist Sumi Hahn \u2013 Korean-born, U.S.-raised, Harvard-educated, New Zealand-domiciled \u2013 reveals Junja\u2019s astonishing journey across cultures and continents and from mermaid to matron.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cchoose a side … [b]eing neutral won\u2019t protect you.\u201d Commingling multigenerational family saga, legends, wrenching love story, ghostly hauntings, and tumultuous history, Hahn creates a transporting masterpiece.<\/p>\n

Review<\/strong>: “Fiction,” Booklist<\/em>, November 1, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n

Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n

Published<\/strong>: 2020<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

*STARRED REVIEW Once upon a time, Junja was a \u201creal\u201d mermaid, a Korean haenyeo \u2013 one of the world-renowned freediving women who gather sea life \u2013 of Jeju Island. By 2001, she\u2019s spent most of her life as \u201ca pillar of the Korean American community…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,37,38,6535],"tags":[84,6608,6668,341,58,75,10,11,135,24,51,25,13,9401,129,212,309,39,28,9402,45],"class_list":["post-47507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-fiction","category-korean","category-korean-american","category-repost","tag-betrayal","tag-bookdragon","tag-booklist","tag-colonialism","tag-coming-of-age","tag-death","tag-family","tag-friendship","tag-grandparents","tag-historical","tag-identity","tag-immigration","tag-love","tag-mermaid-from-jeju","tag-mother-daughter-relationship","tag-murder","tag-nature","tag-parent-child-relationship","tag-politics","tag-sumi-hahn","tag-war"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Mermaid from Jeju by Sumi Hahn [in Booklist] - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-mermaid-from-jeju-by-sumi-hahn-in-booklist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Mermaid from Jeju by Sumi Hahn [in Booklist] - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"*STARRED REVIEW Once upon a time, Junja was a \u201creal\u201d mermaid, a Korean haenyeo \u2013 one of the world-renowned freediving women who gather sea life \u2013 of Jeju Island. By 2001, she\u2019s spent most of her life as \u201ca pillar of the Korean American community...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-mermaid-from-jeju-by-sumi-hahn-in-booklist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-11-23T16:12:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-11-18T13:49:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2020\/09\/Mermaid-from-Jeju-Sumi-Hahn-BookDragon.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"661\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"999\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SmithsonianAPA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Mermaid from Jeju by Sumi Hahn [in Booklist] - BookDragon","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-mermaid-from-jeju-by-sumi-hahn-in-booklist\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Mermaid from Jeju by Sumi Hahn [in Booklist] - BookDragon","og_description":"*STARRED REVIEW Once upon a time, Junja was a \u201creal\u201d mermaid, a Korean haenyeo \u2013 one of the world-renowned freediving women who gather sea life \u2013 of Jeju Island. 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