Pachinko

Min Jin Lee's Pachinko, published in 2017, opens in Korea in the early twentieth century and follows four generations of one family. The story begins with the generation of Sunja's father on the island of Yeongdo, near the port of Busan, and moves on to Sunja herself, who falls for a wealthy and well-dressed stranger, Koh Hansu, and then learns that he is married and that their connection cannot end as she had imagined. She refuses his offer to settle the matter with money, and instead accepts a proposal of marriage from Baek Isak, a sickly minister who is on his way to Japan, which takes her away from her home and sets the family on a new course.

The novel is divided into three sections, beginning with Gohyang, or Hometown, which runs from 1910 to 1933 and ends with the birth of Sunja's son Noa, and continuing into Motherland and then Pachinko. Through the decades that follow, the family lives and works in the markets, churches and universities of Japan and, later, in its pachinko parlours, in a country that treats Koreans as outsiders and where discrimination shapes daily decisions.

Pachinko was Min Jin Lee's second novel and was a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction. It was adapted for television by Apple TV+, and the adaptation was released in March 2022.