Pachinko

Min Jin Lee's Pachinko is a four-generation Korean family epic that takes place across key moments in Korean/Japanese history, and ultimately explores the deep levels of anti-Korean discrimination and prejudice in modern Japanese society. Lee’s storytelling ability is a delight; her prose is on the surface plain and unadorned, but the unobtrusiveness allows the story to come through clearly and lucidly. And some of her sentences have the simplistic beauty of great fables: “She could feel Noa’s small hand when he was a boy, and she would close her eyes and think of his sweet, grassy smell and remember that he had always tried his best.” Recommended for fans of Trollope or Adichie.