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Book Reviewed by:From the author of The Calligrapher's Daughter comes the riveting story of two sisters, one raised in the United States, the other in South Korea, and the family that bound them together even as the Korean War kept them apart.
In 1948 Najin and Calvin Cho, with their young daughter Miran, travel from South Korea to the United States in search of new opportunities. Wary of the challenges they know will face them, Najin and Calvin make the difficult decision to leave their infant daughter, Inja, behind with their extended family; soon, they hope, they will return to her.
But then war breaks out in Korea, and there is no end in sight to the separation. Miran grows up in prosperous American suburbia, under the shadow of the daughter left behind, as Inja grapples in her war-torn land with ties to a family she doesn't remember. Najin and Calvin desperately seek a reunion with Inja, but are the bonds of love strong enough to reconnect their family over distance, time, and war? And as deep family secrets are revealed, will everything they long for be upended?
Told through the alternating perspectives of the distanced sisters, and inspired by a true story, The Kinship of Secrets explores the cruelty of war, the power of hope, and what it means to be a sister.
I recommend this book to anyone who loves language, powerful storytelling, and well-developed characters...Hopefully novels such as these will spur people to think more deeply about the individuals we read about in the news, especially those too young to influence their own future...continued
Full Review
(802 words)
(Reviewed by First Impressions Reviewers).
In Eugenia Kim's novel The Kinship of Secrets, sisters Inja and Miran are separated by the military action known in Western countries as the Korean War. Officially a "police action" – war was never declared – it is frequently referred to as "the Forgotten War" or the "Unknown War," as many Americans knew little about it due to government censorship of its coverage at the time. South Koreans generally refer to it as the six-two-five-war (yook-ee-oh junjeng) for the day and month in 1950 that the conflict began, while the North Koreans refer to it as the Fatherland Liberation War. China, which also became involved in the hostilities, officially calls it the War to Resist America and Aid Korea.
The Korean Peninsula was part of ...
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