‘Vivid and immersive, Pachinko is a rich tribute to a people that history seems intent on erasing.’

–The Guardian

Yeongdo, Korea 1911

A club-footed, cleft-lipped man marries a fifteen-year-old girl. The couple have one child, their beloved daughter Sunja. When Sunja falls pregnant by a married yakuza, the family face ruin. But then a Christian minister offers a chance of salvation: a new life in Japan as his wife.

Following a man he barely knows to a hostile country where she has no friends and no home, Sunja’s salvation is just the beginning of her story.

‘A beautifully realised saga.’

TLS