Pachinko

This multigenerational family saga by Min Jin Lee is very good, and quite a feat given the breadth and complexity of its narrative. Published in 2017, Pachinko begins in 1910 in the Yeongdo district of Busan. Sunja, the novel’s central character, later moves to the Ikaino district of Osaka in 1933. As the story unfolds, spanning the years up to 1989, we come to know her family well.

We witness the hardships they endure, shaped by poverty, racism and stereotyping, aging, gender inequality, and war. They also face the complex boundaries of belonging, as members of a community often rejected or unacknowledged in both Koreas and in Japan. It’s a fictional history of ordinary people that feels remarkably real and consistently honest. The interplay between major and minor characters, along with the seamless progression of the narrative across eight decades, works especially well.

I’d recommend Pachinko not only to those interested in the Korean diaspora and Japan, but to anyone who enjoys a substantial, well-structured novel with a strong sense of pacing.