Eugenia Kim | Author
Eugenia Kim | Author
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Order in the UK via Bloomsbury
Hardback and ebook available. Bloomsbury is a leading independent publishing house established in 1986. It has companies in London, Oxford, New York, Sydney and Delhi.
Praise for The Kinship of Secrets
The Kinship of Secrets will be published on November 6, 2018.
Min Jin Lee, author of Pachinko and Free Food for Millionaires
Eugenia Kim’s The Kinship of Secrets is a beautiful allegory of loss and recovery. Through the parallel growth of two separated sisters, Kim bears witness to the fall and rise of nation and its resilient and generous people. The Kinship of Secrets is a gorgeous achievement.
Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sympathizer
A graceful, poignant, and moving portrayal of one family’s struggle to remain a family through decades of war, migration, and separation.
The Washington Post
Beautifully illuminate[s] Korea’s past in ways that inform our present . . . Kim infuses a coming-of-age story about being an outsider with the realities of the war, which forced many family separations, some of which still persist today. —Nicole Y. Chung
Booklist STARRED REVIEW; and Top Ten Women's Fiction on Audio
…A timely and moving historical saga illuminating the repercussions experienced by families separated by war. … Kim’s heartfelt story…will greatly appeal to readers who enjoy the multiculturalnovels of Lisa See and Amy Tan, stories that enlighten as well as entertain.
Library Journal
Kim is a true storyteller, and her latest work is engaging throughout. Readers who enjoy family sagas by Lisa See and Jamie Ford will appreciate this one.
Yoojin Grace Wurtz, author of Everything Belongs to Us
The Korean War has been called “the forgotten war” in the West, but Kim’s second novel, a powerful narrative about the ways families relentlessly love and protect each other despite immense challenges, is a story that demands to be remembered, along with its history. The Kinship of Secrets is both a meditation on homesickness and a celebration of homecoming that made me appreciate the complicated bonds between sisters, between mothers and daughters, and the love for relatives that become surrogate parents. A beautiful novel, and a necessary, important story for our times.
Marie Myung-ok Lee, author of Somebody's Daughter
A gripping story of war and immigration, as well as a tender meditation on what it means to be of a family and of a country.
Jung Yun, author of Shelter
What an extraordinary time to read this heartfelt novel about the bonds of family, set against the backdrop of the Korean War. Eugenia Kim is a masterful storyteller who makes her characters come to life as she spans decades, continents, and cultures.
Krys Lee, author of How I Became a North Korean
I felt as though I had stepped into a graceful story of two countries, South Korea and America, and family ties that survive the challenges of history.
Amazon.com Best Books of the Month: Literature & Fiction
Amazon pick for November
Real Simple, November 2018
The Short List: Five Books That Won’t Disappoint— …Eugenia Kim’s stunning novel based in part on her family history, follows Miran and Inja as they grow up in two very different countries.
NYLON Best November New Books
That this stunning novel is based on a true story makes its plot all the more heartrending… Kim tells this story through the perspectives of both sisters, and deftly reveals the toll that war wreaks on individual lives. And yet, for all the devastation, there still remains the possibility for hope and redemption, and the ability to transcend the boundaries imposed by geopolitical nightmares, and make connections anew with the people with whom you share a common history.
BookPage "Book of the Day" 11/26/18
A family separated by war and difficult choices maintains an unwavering bond in Eugenia Kim’s thoughtful second novel. …Drawn from her own family history, Kim’s story unfolds with the weight of lived experience. Through these relationships, The Kinship of Secrets explores the meaning of love and sacrifice and how often they are one and the same.
Ms. Magazine, Fall 2018
Eugenia Kim’s second novel takes place in 20th-century Korea but shines a light on problems of migration and family that feel ever-more urgent here and now. THE KINSHIP OF SECRETS is an empathetic and moving look at a close family divided by conflict and change. …Most of the novel’s considerable appeal comes from the way Kim maps lines of identity, kin and culture: never oversimplifying, always taking her characters in unexpected directions.
The Sunday Times London
Nothing is taken for granted in Eugenia Kim’s thoughtful, well-written The Kinship of Secrets (Bloomsbury), which recounts the parallel upbringings of two Korean sisters. …Poignant and richly evocative of both Korea and the immigrant experience, Kim’s insightful novel is based on her own background.
The Daily Mail
Themes of displacement, identity and the bonding power of family resonate throughout this ambitious and loosely autobiographical novel from Korean-American writer Eugenia Kim. …Kim tracks the lives of [two] sisters, each trapped between conflicting cultural identities, but Inja is the emotional focus, and the unhappy scenes when she arrives in America are the most arresting.
The National
This is an emotionally wrought and elegantly written novel about longing and belonging, and the trials of rebuilding a country and reforming a family. Kim’s saga sprawls over years and continents, tracks disparate lives, and traces seismic shocks and rifts in modern Korean history. Characters grow up and move with the times, not least Inja. We travel with her on her journey to adulthood and tighter family bonds, all the while remembering, with affection, that little girl who “worried about the thread between her parents and herself and how easily it frayed to nothing.”