The Island of Sea Women: A Novel
(Libby/OverDrive eAudiobook)

*Starred Review* They meet at age seven. Young-sook and her mother are working their garden; Mi-ja crouches among the sweet-potato plants, desperate to eat. They are on Korea's Jeju Island, known for its Three Abundances of wind, stones, and women, it was also acknowledged for lacking three other things: beggars, thieves, and locked gates. Mi-ja is a city transplant living with relatives, who consider her a servant. She is also the village pariah because her late father was a collaborator with the brutal Japanese colonizers. Ironically, this becomes Mi-ja's best day since being orphaned because she leaves Young-sook's with a full belly, a surrogate mother, and a best friend. Trained together as haenyeo Jeju's renowned sea women who free dive for sea life Young-sook and Mi-ja share intimate joys and survive debilitating hardships into adulthood, wifehood, and motherhood, until an unfathomable tragedy sunders their closer-than-sisters bond. Sixty years later, Young-sook is a national treasure, a world-traveled octogenarian haenyeo. On her shoreline appear Mi-ja's granddaughter and her American family; Young-sook's initial denials acquiesce to reveal a past driven by love, loss, betrayal, perhaps even forgiveness. A stupendous multigenerational family saga, See's (The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, 2017) latest also provides an enthralling cultural anthropology highlighting the soon-to-be-lost, matriarchal haenyeo phenomenon and an engrossing history of violently tumultuous twentieth-century Korea. A mesmerizing achievement. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: See's accomplishment, acclaim, and readership continue to rise with each book, and interest in this stellar novel will be well stoked.--Terry Hong Copyright 2019 Booklist

See (The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane) once again explores how culture survives and morphs in this story of a real-life Korean female diving collective. Young-Sook and Mi-Ja meet as young girls in 1939 in Hado, a village on the island of Jeju, where traditionally the women earn a living while their husbands care for the children and home. The two girls begin training as haenyeo, divers who harvest oysters, sea slugs, and octopi from the sea. But after WWII when American occupation of southern Korea begins, the two grow apart. While Young-Sook struggles to make ends meet for her family, Mi-Ja's husband's role in the government spares her the economic suffering endured by most of the country. But after Mi-Ja's family betrays Young-Sook, Young-Sook struggles for decades to reconcile her anger with fond memories of her friend, even after their families cross paths again. Jumping between the WWII era and 2008, See perceptively depicts challenges faced by Koreans over the course of the 20th century, particularly homing in on the ways the haenyeo have struggled to maintain their way of life. Exposing the depths of human cruelty and resilience, See's lush tale is a wonderful ode to a truly singular group of women. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

The voice of Jennifer Lim brings a subtle, down-to-earth realism to See's (The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane) new novel which explores the matrifocal society of the haenyeo, female divers of Jeju, an island off the coast of present-day South Korea. Listeners experience events through the eyes of diver Young-sook as she learns her craft during the Japanese occupation of Korea, through World War II, and into the present era. Her friend Mi-ja, an orphan and child of a Japanese collaborator, is taken in by Young-Sook's mother and taught to dive, but the friendship is sorely tested shortly after World War II during a time of mass murder. Known as the 4.3 Incident, this was an actual event covered up by the South Korean government for decades. VERDICT Recommended for loyal See fans, for those with an interest in Korea, and historical fiction fans in general. ["Superbly written, this fast-paced read not only encourages readers to reflect on the notion of friendship and family, it also educates on the complex history of the region": Xpress Reviews 2/15/19 review of the Scribner hc.]--David Faucheux, Lafayette, LA

On an island off the South Korean coast, an ancient guild of women divers reckons with the depredations of modernity from 1938 to 2008 in See's (The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, 2017, etc.) latest novel.The women divers of Jeju Island, known as haenyeo, don't display the usual female subservience. Empowered by the income they derive from their diving, harvesting seafood to consume and sell, haenyeo are heads of households; their husbands mind the children and do menial chores. Young-sook, See's first-person narrator and protagonist, tells of her family and her ill-fated friendship with Mi-ja, who, rescued from neglectful relatives by Sun-sil, Young-sook's mother, is initiated into the diving collective headed by Sun-sil. The girls grow up together, dive together, and go on lucrative assignments in the freezing waters near Vladivostok, Russia. They are also married off together, Mi-ja to Sang-mun, who, as World War II progresses, is enriched by collaborating with the Japanese, and Young-sook to Jun-bu, a neighbor and childhood playmate. The novel's first half is anecdotal and a little tedious as the minutiae of the haenyeo craft are explored: free diving, pre-wetsuit diving garb, and sumbisori, the art of held breath. As two tragedies prove, the most prized catches are the riskiest: octopus and abalone. See did extensive research with primary sources to detail not only the haenyeo traditions, but the mass murders on Jeju beginning in 1948, which were covered up for decades by the South Korean government. As Jeju villages are decimated, Young-sook loses half her family and also, due to a terrible betrayal, her friendship with Mi-ja. The tangled web of politics and tyranny, not to mention the inaction of U.N. and American occupiers leading up to the massacres, deserves its own work, perhaps nonfiction. In the context of such horrors, the novel's main source of suspense, whether Young-sook can forgive Mi-ja, seems beside the point.Although this novel's reach exceeds its grasp, it is a necessary book. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

*Starred Review* They meet at age seven. Young-sook and her mother are working their garden; Mi-ja crouches among the sweet-potato plants, desperate to eat. They are on Korea's Jeju Island, "known for its Three Abundances of wind, stones, and women, it was also acknowledged for lacking three other things: beggars, thieves, and locked gates." Mi-ja is a city transplant living with relatives, who consider her a servant. She is also the village pariah because her late father was a collaborator with the brutal Japanese colonizers. Ironically, this becomes Mi-ja's "best day" since being orphaned because she leaves Young-sook's with a full belly, a surrogate mother, and a best friend. Trained together as haenyeo—Jeju's renowned sea women who free dive for sea life—Young-sook and Mi-ja share intimate joys and survive debilitating hardships into adulthood, wifehood, and motherhood, until an unfathomable tragedy sunders their closer-than-sisters bond. Sixty years later, Young-sook is a national treasure, a world-traveled octogenarian haenyeo. On her shoreline appear Mi-ja's granddaughter and her American family; Young-sook's initial denials acquiesce to reveal a past driven by love, loss, betrayal, perhaps even forgiveness. A stupendous multigenerational family saga, See's (The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, 2017) latest also provides an enthralling cultural anthropology highlighting the soon-to-be-lost, matriarchal haenyeo phenomenon and an engrossing history of violently tumultuous twentieth-century Korea. A mesmerizing achievement. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: See's accomplishment, acclaim, and readership continue to rise with each book, and interest in this stellar novel will be well stoked. Copyright 2019 Booklist Reviews.

This latest work by New York Times best-selling See after The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane takes place on Korea's Jeju Island, known for women divers called the Haenyeo, who risk their lives doing hard physical labor while the men stay home and tend the children. Here, two fledgling divers become fast friends despite obvious contrasts—Young-sook's mother is the lead diver, while Mi-ja is diminished in others' eyes because her father collaborated with the Japanese. But then something big happens to test their friendship. With a 200,000-copy first printing and a ten-city tour.

The haenyeo of Korea's Jeju Island make their living free-diving into the chilly waters of the Korean Strait to gather abalone, crabs, and other delicacies. This is an honor reserved for women owing to their superior physical and mental shape, while the husbands stay home and raise the children. See's (Shanghai Girls; Snow Flower and the Secret Fan) latest saga tells the story of two budding haenyeo, Mi-ja and Young-sook and how their uneasy friendship is shaped by undercurrents of war and jealousy. Spanning the 1930s through 2018, the story of each woman's life reflects the tragedy and grief of the historical events of the time. See's writing brings the horrors caused by Japanese, South Korean, and American forces during and after World War II to life as the women navigate marriage, motherhood, and more deaths than anyone should endure. VERDICT Superbly written, this fast-paced read not only encourages readers to reflect on the notion of friendship and family, it also educates on the complex history of the region. [See Prepub Alert, 9/17/18.]—Chelsie Harris, San Diego Cty. Lib. (c) Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

See (The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane) once again explores how culture survives and morphs in this story of a real-life Korean female diving collective. Young-Sook and Mi-Ja meet as young girls in 1939 in Hado, a village on the island of Jeju, where traditionally the women earn a living while their husbands care for the children and home. The two girls begin training as haenyeo, divers who harvest oysters, sea slugs, and octopi from the sea. But after WWII when American occupation of southern Korea begins, the two grow apart. While Young-Sook struggles to make ends meet for her family, Mi-Ja's husband's role in the government spares her the economic suffering endured by most of the country. But after Mi-Ja's family betrays Young-Sook, Young-Sook struggles for decades to reconcile her anger with fond memories of her friend, even after their families cross paths again. Jumping between the WWII era and 2008, See perceptively depicts challenges faced by Koreans over the course of the 20th century, particularly homing in on the ways the haenyeo have struggled to maintain their way of life. Exposing the depths of human cruelty and resilience, See's lush tale is a wonderful ode to a truly singular group of women. (Mar.)