Pachinko

This is the story of 4 generations of a family that immigrated from Korea to Japan in the early 20th century. We follow their battles with hunger, war and prejudices, and witness how mistakes early in life can have long lasting repercussions. Besides the family connections, Korean culture and traditions, the other thread through the book is the very informative history of the ongoing discrimination of Koreans in Japan.

The writing was fantastic, the multi-generational story was told in short chapters each depicting a moment in life, yet it never felt too episodic. The writing style somehow has weight and levity at the same time, and I especially loved how the last sentence/paragraph of each chapter, and the way it was left hanging, often had a very poetic quality to it.

The reason I don't give it 5 stars is, that despite all the good above, I never quite found my emotional connection to it. Or I would have wished for it to be longer, to reach the magnitude of a historical epic.