Pachinko
Four generations of one family. Decades of discrimination in Japan. Lee spent thirty years researching this. Every page earns its weight.
Roots and Routes
Min Jin Lee's 2017 novel opens in 1910 Korea with a young woman named Sunja who makes a choice that will shape four generations of her family. Her descendants emigrate to Japan and struggle as Zainichi Koreans, a people denied full citizenship for decades in the country where they were born. The novel follows them through the Japanese occupation of Korea, World War II, the postwar economic miracle, and into the 1980s. Lee spent thirty years researching and writing the book, living in Japan and interviewing hundreds of Korean Japanese families. It was a finalist for the National Book Award.
Reading Pachinko
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"History has failed us, but no matter.
"Min Jin Lee
Lee conceived the novel when she read a single sentence in a New York Times article about the 700,000 ethnic Koreans in Japan who had lived there for generations but were still classified as resident aliens with limited rights.
Lee moved to Japan for three years with her husband and son specifically to research the novel, visiting pachinko parlours, Buddhist temples, and Korean community organisations across Tokyo and Osaka.