The Kinship Of Secrets

I've been reading a lot of Korean works lately and they're reacquainting me to the idea of Korean “han”. Go back a mere generation and see how Korean lives are influenced by the Japanese occupation, the Korean War, families split apart and the very real possibility of imprisonment and/or death. Han is the feeling of sorrow, injustice and anger that informs the Korean people but still has room for fierce hope.

It's 1948 and the Cho's arrive in the United States with their daughter Miran. They have left their sickly child Inja behind with an uncle and grandparents with the promise to fetch her as soon as they settle into their new home. But then war breaks out, Inja flees to Busan and the Cho's reunion with their daughter extends across years.

Chapters switch back and forth between Inja in South Korea while Miran struggles to find her place in an adopted homeland. I recognized Miran's mother's collections of colloquialisms. My father also kept a ledger of idioms, endlessly fascinated by these turns of phrases that otherwise made no sense like “kick the bucket” or “over the moon”.

The family is eventually reunited after over a decade apart and the reunion is not quite so simple. Inja has made a life for herself in Korea and mourns the loss of her friends and extended family. Miran has to contend with her sibling that is still a stranger to her.

A lovely read but more importantly I'm appreciating how many Korean works in translation are hitting North American shelves and am relishing collecting stories of my Korean culture.