Pachinko (National Book Award Finalist)

· Sold by Grand Central Publishing
4.5
165 reviews
Ebook
496
Pages
Eligible

About this ebook

One of the New York Times 100 Best Books of the 21st Century

In this New York Times bestseller, four generations of a poor Korean immigrant family fight to control their destiny in 20th-century Japan–the inspiration for the television series on Apple TV+.


 In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a crippled fisherman, falls for a wealthy stranger. When she discovers she is pregnant–and that her lover is married–she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle, sickly minister passing through on his way to Japan. But her decision to abandon her home, and to reject her son's powerful father, sets off a dramatic saga that will echo down through the generations.

Profoundly moving, Pachinko is a story of love, sacrifice, ambition, and loyalty. 

*Includes reading group guide*

NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2017 * A USA TODAY TOP TEN OF 2017 * JULY PICK FOR THE PBS NEWSHOUR-NEW YORK TIMES BOOK CLUB NOW READ THIS * FINALIST FOR THE 2018DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE* WINNER OF THE MEDICI BOOK CLUB PRIZE

 Roxane Gay's Favorite Book of 2017, Washington Post

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * #1 BOSTON GLOBE BESTSELLER * USA TODAY BESTSELLER * WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER * WASHINGTON POST BESTSELLER

Ratings and reviews

4.5
165 reviews
Matt M
April 21, 2019
The books focal point on Korean Japanese since the colonial to current period is well portayed.... the Japanese society despite the century has passed it has not changed its view and treatment on non Japanese. This point is very repetitive w different character generations however one of main character who abandons his family and ends his life is not developed in depth. The book flows simiar to other famous Chinese family saga though writing style gets choppy at times. Good read regardless.
26 people found this review helpful
Did you find this helpful?
Patrick Theby
March 4, 2018
Brings to light what Koreans have endured the past century, racism in Japan. But overall disappointing. Too much focus on random side stories that go no where, soap opera. Would have liked more focus on historical events.
40 people found this review helpful
Did you find this helpful?
Toby A. Smith
February 17, 2020
Despite the title, this is NOT a story about a popular Japanese arcade game. Instead, it is a multi-generational story of one family that the author uses to explore the complex relationship between native-born Koreans and native-born Japanese. Beginning in Korea in 1910 with a couple of peasant farmers (just as Japan is about to occupy the Korean Peninsula), author Min Jin Lee traces their descendants across seven generations (until 1989) as they work toward bettering their lives in Japan, using opportunities provided by religion, education, and business. However, this is not a typical rags-to-riches story. Because at the heart of every relationship each family member has along the way is the deeply rooted prejudice native Japanese have toward non-natives. Even after they have lived in Japan for many generations. Japanese prejudice against Korean seems particularly acute, perhaps because so MANY Koreans moved to Japan, many because of the Korean War, and wound up doing many of the jobs Japanese weren't interested in. (sound familiar?) The discrimination they experienced was and still is manifested in attitude, housing, employment, custom, and law -- establishing, in effect, a class system which limits the kind of life non-native can establish in Japan. On the plus side I learned a great deal about both Korean and Japanese cultures including their abiding respect for elders, the unfailing importance of politeness, much ingrained sexism, and the value placed on extended family. I found the story of Sunja -- the teenage daughter of poor innkeepers who unknowingly gets involved with a shady businessman -- particularly compelling. On the minus side, as Lee began to tell the later stories of younger family members, I felt the book lost some focus. Instead of a single central character I came to care about, there were many more stories threads to track. And the chapters often skipped years so I began to feel that I was following the family saga through a series of vignettes, instead of reading one continuous story. Nevertheless, a very worthwhile and educational novel.
55 people found this review helpful
Did you find this helpful?

About the author

Min Jin Lee is a recipient of fellowships in Fiction from the Guggenheim Foundation (2018) and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard (2018-2019). Her novel Pachinko (2017) was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction, a runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, winner of the Medici Book Club Prize, and one of the New York Times' "Ten Best Books of 2017." A New York Times bestseller, Pachinko was also one of the "Ten Best Books" of the year for BBC and the New York Public Library, and a "best international fiction" pick for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. In total, it was on over seventy-five best books of the year lists, including NPR, PBS, and CNN, and it was a selection for Now Read This, the joint book club of PBS NewsHour and the New York Times. Pachinko will be translated into twenty-seven languages. Lee's debut novel Free Food for Millionaires (2007) was one of the best books of the year for the Times of London, NPR's Fresh Air, and USA Today, and it was a national bestseller. Her writings have appeared in the New Yorker, NPR's Selected Shorts, One Story, the New York Review of Books, the New York Times Magazine, the New York Times Book Review, the Times Literary Supplement, the Guardian, Condé Nast Traveler, the Times of London, andthe Wall Street Journal. Lee served three consecutive seasons as a Morning Forum columnist of the Chosun Ilbo of South Korea. In 2018, she was named as one of Adweek's Creative 100 for being one of the "ten writers and editors who are changing the national conversation," and one of the Guardian's Frederick Douglass 200. She received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from Monmouth College. She will be a Writer-in-Residence at Amherst College from 2019-2022.

Rate this ebook

Tell us what you think.

Reading information

Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.