Mi-ja and Young-sook have spent their lives on the Korean island of Jeju, home of the haenyeo - the diving women who for generations have gathered their livelihood from the sea. While Young-sook comes from a strong line of local diving women, Mi-ji is an orphan tainted by her parents' perceived collaborations with the occupying Japanese in a Korea that has not yet seen the Second World War. With brief periods of insight into the modern life of a haenyeo, The Island of Sea Women is mostly a tale of the past, of a Korea whose political strife affects the lives of everyone trying to survive and make a living and where the choices you make can have disastrous effects for you and your family for a lifetime.
It is a story of friendship and way trauma and a lack of forgiveness can affect our relationships. It is a story of the strength of women and way the fallout of war falls so hard on their shoulders. Between the strong writing and the expertly crafted Korean world, I was truly transported. It is desperately sad, much of the time, but I felt the authenticity of the plot, even if it sometimes seemed like even I, as a reader, needed a break from reading about trauma. I'm glad I read this book, not just because I enjoyed it but especially because my knowledge of more modern Korean history has now improved ten fold.
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