Lead Review

• Book: The Calligrapher’s Daughter
• Location: South Korea
• Author: Eugenia Kim

Eugenia Kim’s sensitive first novel, which covers thirty years of Korea’s modern history in light of its ancient, is an illuminating prequel to present-day events …  Kim recounts a poignant family history, much of it based on her own mother’s life … The narrative is keenly and often lyrically observed … Kim’s account acquires depth and immediacy as she draws vivid pictures of wartime poverty and hardship …  In quietly recording the arc of a woman’s experience from idyllic childhood through harrowing adulthood, Kim mirrors the changing nation.

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