Flashlight by Susan Choi

 

Anne and Serk married in love and had a child, Louisa, but the love didn't last.  Anne is American, Serk is Korean although he was born and grew up in Japan.  He came to the United States on a student visa and after his education was finished, he taught.  By then the two were barely talking, their initial interest long gone.  

Serk agrees to do an exchange to Korea for a year to please his administration.  While there, Anne becomes ill, the tingles and aches she had been feeling a case of MS.  She was pretty much confined to the house so Serk and Louisa explored the land.  While walking along the beach one night, a tragedy occurs.  Serk and Louisa are swept out to sea.  Louisa is found later, half dead, Serk's body never found.

Back in the United States, Anne and Louisa soldier on.  Although no one knows it, Serk had not died but ended up in North Korea where he is imprisoned for the next decades, suffering starvation and beatings.  Louisa grows up and moves out, rarely if ever even calling Anne.  The family is irretrievably broken and separate.

Susan Choi is an American author whose prior work won the National Book award.  This novel has been longlisted for the Booker Prize of 2025.  In it, Choi explores the idea of identity, family, alienation and trauma.  The characters don't necessarily lead a happy life but they come to learn about what is important to them as they live and grow older.  I listened to this novel and the narrator did a great job, switching between chapters and lives seamlessly.  The novel is written in alternating chapters from the three main characters' point of view and it also goes back and forth in time.  A master work, this book is recommended for readers of literary and historical fiction.