Year Of Impossible Goodbyes

My fascination with Asia continues. Year Of Impossible Goodbyes by Sook Nyul Choi is classified as a 'young adult book' and although at 28, I am closer to old age in today's jet set fast Internet world, I did enjoy it as any poor 'young adult' might.

The book is an almost autobiographical account of Sookan, who along with her kid brother, Inchun, learn to survive the horrors of the Japanese occupation of Korea in 1945. The defeat of the Japanese did not spell freedom to the despairing Koreans as they found themselves under Soviet-dominated Communist rule. And how Sookan and Inchun escape to the safety of the South forms the crux of this story.

From Randomhouse:

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Police captain Narita does his best to destroy everything of value to the family, but he cannot break their spirit. Sookan's father is with the resistance movement in Manchuria and her older brothers have been sent away to labor camps. Her mother is forced to supervise a sock factory and Sookan herself must wear a uniform and attend a Japanese school.

Then the war ends. Out come the colorful Korean silks and bags of white rice. But Communist Russian troops have taken control of North Korea and once again the family is suppressed. Sookan and her family know their only hope for freedom lies in a dangerous escape to American-controlled South Korea.
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Written heartrendingly simplistically, and narrated by the young voice of Sookan, it takes you on a small journey into a land that suffered so. There was no profound imagery in this book, but sometimes simplicity can tug at your heart strings, and so it did, especially towards the climactic last few pages of the book.

Was it worth the money? It was. Are there better books on Korea? Most definitely.

• Verdict: Buyable.