'Ferociously smart and full of surprises' Eleanor Catton author of Birnam Wood 'Instantly
bewitching' Jennifer Egan author of A Visit From the Goon Squad 'A rich generational saga
that teems with intelligence' Financial Times The astonishing story of one family swept up
in the tides of the twentieth century which takes them from post-war Japan to suburban America
and the North Korean regime One evening ten-year-old Louisa and her father take a walk out
on the breakwater. They are spending the summer in a coastal Japanese town while her father
Serk a Korean émigré completes an academic secondment from his American university. When
Louisa wakes hours later she has washed up on the beach and her father is missing probably
drowned. The disappearance of Louisa's father shatters their small family unit. As Louisa and
her American mother Anne return to the US this traumatic event reverberates across time and
space and the mystery of what really happened to Serk slowly unravels. ' Big bold and
surprising' Guardian 'Engrossing... Choi is an astute convincing writer' Sunday Telegraph
' Susan Choi is a master of rendering relationships with utter particularity' Raven Leilani
author of Luster 'I couldn't put it down and once I finished I couldn't stop thinking about
it' Barbara Demick author of Nothing to Envy
