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A story of the lives of the three people who make a family, the one moment in history that shatters what held them together, and the reverberations of that event that last a lifetime

‘Ferociously smart and full of surprises’ Eleanor Catton, author of Birnam Wood

‘A rich generational saga that teems with intelligence’ Financial Times

From post-war Japan to suburban America and the North Korean regime, this is the astonishing story of one family swept up in the tides of the twentieth century.

One evening, ten-year-old Louisa and her father take a walk out on the breakwater. They are spending the summer in a coastal Japanese town while her father Serk, a Korean emigre, completes an academic secondment from his American university. When Louisa wakes hours later, she has washed up on the beach and her father is missing, probably drowned.

The disappearance of Louisa’s father shatters their small family unit. As Louisa and her American mother Anne return to the US, this traumatic event reverberates across time and space, and the mystery of what really happened to Serk slowly unravels.

‘Big, bold and surprising’ Guardian

‘A writer at the height of her spectacular powers’ Jennifer Egan, author of The Candy House

‘Susan Choi is a master of rendering relationships with utter particularity’ Raven Leilani, author of Luster

‘I couldn’t put it down, and once I finished, I couldn’t stop thinking about it’ Barbara Demick, author of Nothing to Envy