A dazzlingly original, moving and thought-provoking novel about one woman's struggle to survive throughout a century of Korean history

'Seven accounts, told achronologically and ranging from 1938 to 2006, reveal a series of startling transformations involving cross-dressing, spying, identity theft, motherhood and murder ... A dazzling feat of narrative sophistication and historical invention' Financial Times



SLAVE. ESCAPE-ARTIST. MURDERER. TERRORIST. SPY. LOVER. MOTHER. TRICKSTER.

At the Golden Sunset retirement home, it is not unusual for residents to invent stories. So when elderly Ms Mook first begins to unspool her memories, the obituarist listening to her is sceptical. Stories of captivity, friendship, murder, adventure, assumed identities and spying. Stories that take place in WWII Indonesia; in Busan during the Korean war; in cold-war Pyongyang; in China. The stories are so colourful and various, at times so unbelievable, that they cannot surely all belong to the same woman. Can they?


'A gripping story set against the backdrop of Korea's turbulent history ... brilliant and original' Washington Post


'Soaring, fierce, bold, and intoxicating... an unforgettable portrait of a Korean woman navigating her place in the world over the course of almost a hundred years' Marjan Kamali, author of The Stationery Shop of Tehran


'Enthralling, captivating, tantalising ... keeps readers hooked' New York Times