Debut novelist Jiyoung Han's Honey in the Wound alchemizes 90 years of Korean history into an extraordinary multigenerational epic. Twins Geum-Ja and Geum-Jin, born in 1902, were both named after the Korean word for gold "in hopes they might prosper in a way [their mother] never had." Sorrow becomes their legacy: Geum-Ja seemingly disappears and their parents die, leaving Geum-Jin alone. Japanese colonialization looms, and Geum-Jin's family, including wife Jung-Soon and three children, is decimated by vicious Japanese soldiers; only the youngest, Young-Ja, survives.
The traumatized 11-year-old temporarily finds safety with an older Japanese couple until the man begins nighttime molestations; the woman hopes to save her by abandoning her to a "clean-cut young man." He takes her to Manchuria, where she works in a popular café--and rebel resistance hub. But again the Japanese brutally destroy, and at 19, Young-Ja is forced into sexual enslavement for Japanese soldiers. After Japan's defeat, Young-Ja ekes out a meager existence in Seoul. Her son, Joon, knows nothing of her past, but his Japanese-born daughter, Rinako, makes a shocking connection that reunites the scattered family just in time.
Han's author's note included with reviewer editions reveals the novel's provenance was a 2023 article about the last nine nonagenarian "comfort women" left in Korea, still denied an official apology from the Japanese government. Tempering the horrors with magical realism--Geum-Ja's avenging reappearances as a tiger, Young-Ja's food infused with emotions, Rinako's truth-revealing dreams--Han's exceptional storytelling bears spectacular witness to history. --Terry Hong