8 Lives Of A Century-Old Trickster by Mirinae Lee

 

This novel tells the story of Korea, both North and South through the life of a woman who would do whatever it took to survive.  Through the years, she was a slave, a mother, a spy, a murderer, a terrorist, an escape artist, a lover and a trickster.  She goes by several names, her own as a girl, then one she appropriated as a woman.

As a young woman, she is kidnapped in the market along with her servant and taken miles away to serve as a comfort woman during World War II for the Japanese who had invaded Korea.  She becomes friends there with another woman and when that women dies, she takes her life as her own.  She finds a way to escape, killing some of the soldiers, and escapes along with the other women.  She makes her way back to the other woman's home and starts living as her with the other woman's husband and child.

But governments are not through with her yet.  In order to survive, she must become a spy and a terrorist.  She finally escapes to South Korea where she builds yet another life.

Mirinae Lee grew up in Korea and now lives in Hong Kong.  This is her debut novel and it has received many awards, including being longlisted for the Women's Fiction Prize.  The story is inspired by one of Lee's relatives who was one of the oldest women to ever escape from North to South Korea.  The book portrays the poverty and starvation suffered by the people of North Korea as a tyrant governs them.  The trickster will do whatever is needed to survive and protect the people she loves, no matter how difficult or what it takes from her personally.  The novel is told in interconnected stories and it is an amazing debut.  I can't wait to see what this author will do next.  This book is recommended for multicultural and literary fiction readers