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Life is like a pinball machine. You never know which direction it will take.

Well, what a terrific surprise this book was for me. It’s been sitting on my shelves since its release but I’m so glad that I have finally decided to read it.
I was so enthralled by this book that I could have read it in one sitting, regardless of its size (496 pages).
I confess that I was a bit discouraged, not just because of some bad reviews, but because the previous four books that I tried to read were completely abandoned, left unfinished. I thought that I was facing one of those reading slumps.
Now I know for sure that that was not the problem. All I needed was to find something like this book, to hooked me from the very beginning.
Now, what I really find interesting here is that for the first time ever, I can’t complain about the lack of depth of the characters.
The story is told by an omniscient narrator.
The way the author told the mundane day to day life was clever enough to make me feel connected with each one. I was quite mesmerized. And not once I felt bored or lost interest.
The writing is very simple but delightful.
The storyline and its development was very engaging and clever and not melodramatic.
This epic saga of a Korean family facing poverty, racism, immigration and the horrors of war, cover the years between 1910 and 1989. The story was heartbreaking and believable.
It’s a story of family, love and resilience, hopes and dreams. The constant search for something better.

But although I loved every single page, this is not a flawless book. There are huge gaps between the years and you know nothing about what happened between.

Some readers may be offended by its sexual content and language, but I was not disturbed by it (and there isn’t a lot of it - believe me, compared to Harold Robins or even Irving Wallace this book is far from shocking).

Also some readers may see it as sexist, but the new generation have no idea how sexist the world was back then (well, it still is).

Some readers warned me of a disappointing ending, but I was not disappointed at all, perhaps because I had no expectations.

But flawless or not, this book worked for me and it just took the crown as my favourite book of this year (out of 36), beating “The House in the Cerulean Sea��, by T J Kline.

I’m so looking forward to watching the TV series (8 episodes), which starts on Match 25, 2022, on Apple TV.