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The Mermaid from Jeju ; Book Club in a Bag.
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Publishers Weekly Review
Hahn's sweeping debut follows a girl growing up on the Korean island of Jeju in the lead up to U.S. intervention. In 1944, one year before the American occupation of southern Korea begins, 18-year-old Junja has just completed the haenyeo rite of passage, meaning she's now responsible for providing for her family by diving for mollusks. After Junja convinces her mother to let her take an annual trip to Hallasan in her mother's place, to pay respects to the sacred mountain, the narrative picks up speed. On her way, Junja encounters two figures who will become pivotal to the Communist rebels in Jeju: Lieutenant Lee, a military officer whose loyalties secretly reside with the people of Jeju whom the Americans have labeled Communist, and who takes an interest in Junja's family; and Suwol, a boy who shifts gears on his way to becoming a scholar to join the Communists. As Suwol goes on rebel missions while the Americans battle alongside nationalist soldiers against Communists, his relationship with Junja deepens. The star-crossed lovers finally come close to marrying when fate intervenes. Meanwhile, Lee shares information about Suwol with Junja, and even helps rescue Suwol after he's captured by nationalist soldiers. Hahn brilliantly carries the reader through Junja's life with interstitial chapters set in 2001, shortly after her death. With constant tension, the novel masterfully captures the devastating effects of loss and grief, and what people must do to survive war. Agent: Priya Doraswamy, Lotus Lane Literary. (Dec.)
Booklist Review
Once upon a time, Junja was a "real" mermaid, a Korean haenyeo--one of the world-renowned freediving women who gather sea life--of Jeju Island. By 2001, she's spent most of her life as "a pillar of the Korean American community in Philadelphia" when an undetected embolism causes her sudden death. With gorgeous resonance, first-novelist Hahn--Korean-born, U.S.-raised, Harvard-educated, New Zealand-domiciled--reveals Junja's astonishing journey across cultures and continents and from mermaid to matron. In 1944, 18-year-old Junja replaces her mother on the annual climb up Hallasan, where she will fetch the single piglet that will help feed the family throughout the year. By the time she returns the next day, her mother is dying, leaving Junja to care for two younger siblings and her aging grandmother. What is declared a diving accident is revealed to be baseless, fatal torture. With the ousting of the brutal Japanese colonizers, the island should finally have known peace. But no one can be trusted as Nationalists, rebel Communists, and the incoming U.S. military all vie viciously for control. To survive the precarious turmoil, Junja must "choose a side . . . [b]eing neutral won't protect you." Commingling multigenerational family saga, legends, wrenching love story, ghostly hauntings, and tumultuous history, Hahn creates a transporting masterpiece.
Summary
When sea diver Junja convinces her mother to let her go on a trip to the mountains, she didn t mean to fall in love with a mountain boy. Even less so did she expect to return home to find her mother dead, having completed a sea dive herself in Junja's absence. Spiralling in grief, in a Korea still reeling from Japan's withdrawal, Junja must learn to navigate a tumultuous world unlike anything she's ever known.
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