If we are spoken about, then we can never disappear.

Generally, I have a personal moratorium on books set in the 1940s because they seem to all be about World War II, and from a Western perspective. This book was different. It's set in a dual timeline between 1943 and 2011 about two Korean sisters, and the lasting effect of the Japanese colonization of Korea on them, their family, and Korean society at large.

Mary Lynn Bracht writes a devastingly gorgeous and heartbreaking story of the women whose lives were destroyed by the wars in Korea in the 1940s and 1950s. Her writing left me breathless with its intensity and impact. I was hopeful and fearful for both women as I read their stories, never knowing how their lives would develop because I'd never heard this kind of story told before.

We start the story following Hana, a haenyeo, one of several women on her island who dive for a living. These women are admired for their incredible strength and self-sufficiency, as they manage to support their families even through the time of Japanese occupation. We then meet Emi, another haenyeo living in 2011, reflecting on her life as it draws to a close, but also desperately searching for someone. We learn of both their stories as the novel progresses, a mere snapshot into the horrendous experiences of thousands of Koreans in the mid-20th century.

All the trigger warnings for rape, violence against women, etc. This is not a rose-tinted view of war at all. Mary Lynn Bracht does not shy away from the brutality that Korean faced during the Japanese occupation, World War II and the Korean War.

I received a copy of this book through the Penguin First-to-Read program. I did not have to review it here (favorably or otherwise) but I did because it's amazing and people should know about it.