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It could be summarized into this: A four generations saga of family trauma started with a rural girl who unwittingly became pregnant with shady-but-rich-not-husband and became stuck in pre- and post-WWII Japan for very bad times via a short-lived marriage. There is some hope in there, but it's suffocated between layers of lust and tragedy. The story is about racism, humanity and slice of (tragic) life especially when you are women. TBF it's hard to not get bummed when the book kept reminding you that "a women's lot is to suffer," and it's epseically bummed when I am listening to this audiobook while doing house chores 🌚

I find the second book most engaging to me even if the cast of characters widen sufficiently. Towards the end my interest dwindled, especially when I am not sure who to invest in when characters are just being introduced then promptly threw to the tragedy pit then never to be mention again. I think it would help if some of the character's stories were trimmed. The ending felt abrupt to me although every character had been accounted for (spoiler: there were many deaths/ near deaths), but I am not usually a historic fiction reader so maybe this is the norm.

Nonetheless I have to give it credit for its vivid background and attention to historic details. I've learned history from this book and appreciate the author explaining the complexity of Koreans in Japan who basically became refugee when Korea went to civil war themselves.

Five star for it's education values, three stars for it's enjoyment value. It'll be a treasure for historic fiction enthusiast, I just prefer happier ending.

Tidy up later.