The Mermaid from Jeju
A Novel
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3.7 • 18 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
An “entrancing” historical fiction debut “brimming with lyricism and magic” that explores what it means to truly love in the wake of devastation—inspired by true events on Korea’s Jeju Island (Jennifer Rosner, The Yellow Bird Sings).
In the aftermath of World War II, Goh Junja is a girl just coming into her own. She is the latest successful deep sea diver in a family of strong haenyeo. Confident she is a woman now, Junja urges her mother to allow her to make the Goh family's annual trip to Mt. Halla, where they trade abalone and other sea delicacies for pork. Junja, a sea village girl, has never been to the mountains, where it smells like mushrooms and earth. While there, she falls in love with a mountain boy Yang Suwol, who rescues her after a particularly harrowing journey. But when Junja returns one day later, it is just in time to see her mother take her last breath, beaten by the waves during a dive she was taking in Junja's place.
Spiraling in grief, Junja sees her younger siblings sent to live with their estranged father. Everywhere she turns, Junja is haunted by the loss of her mother, from the meticulously tended herb garden that has now begun to sprout weeds, to the field where their bed sheets are beaten. She has only her grandmother and herself. But the world moves on without Junja.
The political climate is perilous. Still reeling from Japan's forced withdrawal from the peninsula, Korea is forced to accommodate the rapid establishment of US troops. Junja's canny grandmother, who lived through the Japanese invasion that led to Korea's occupation understands the signs of danger all too well. When Suwol is arrested for working with and harboring communists, and the perils of post-WWII overtake her homelands, Junja must learn to navigate a tumultuous world unlike anything she's ever known.
“Hahn creates a world alive with dreams, with gods, with tradition, and the richness of a rural Korean culture.”
—New York Journal of Books
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hahn's sweeping debut follows a girl growing up on the Korean island of Jeju in the lead up to U.S. intervention. In 1944, one year before the American occupation of southern Korea begins, 18-year-old Junja has just completed the haenyeo rite of passage, meaning she's now responsible for providing for her family by diving for mollusks. After Junja convinces her mother to let her take an annual trip to Hallasan in her mother's place, to pay respects to the sacred mountain, the narrative picks up speed. On her way, Junja encounters two figures who will become pivotal to the Communist rebels in Jeju: Lieutenant Lee, a military officer whose loyalties secretly reside with the people of Jeju whom the Americans have labeled Communist, and who takes an interest in Junja's family; and Suwol, a boy who shifts gears on his way to becoming a scholar to join the Communists. As Suwol goes on rebel missions while the Americans battle alongside nationalist soldiers against Communists, his relationship with Junja deepens. The star-crossed lovers finally come close to marrying when fate intervenes. Meanwhile, Lee shares information about Suwol with Junja, and even helps rescue Suwol after he's captured by nationalist soldiers. Hahn brilliantly carries the reader through Junja's life with interstitial chapters set in 2001, shortly after her death. With constant tension, the novel masterfully captures the devastating effects of loss and grief, and what people must do to survive war.
