-
“Min Jin Lee draws you in from the first line, ‘History has failed us, but no matter’…It’s a powerful story about resilience and compassion.”
- Barack Obama
-
“Astounding. The sweep of Dickens and Tolstoy applied to a twentieth-century Korean family in Japan.”
- Gary Shteyngart, New York Times bestselling author
-
“This extraordinary book will prove a revelation of joy and heartbreak. I could not stop turning the pages, and wished this most poignant of sagas would never end.”
- Simon Winchester, New York Times bestselling author
-
A social novel in the Dickensian vein...frequently heartbreaking.
- USA Today
-
“What makes the book impossible to put down is how elegantly Min Jin Lee captures the heartache of her characters and how she moves across this sprawling family saga from one generation to the next. In reading this tale about family, we learned a little bit more about ours.”
- New York Times
-
“Stunning…Despite the compelling sweep of time and history, it is the characters and their tumultuous lives that propel the narrative.”
- New York Times Book Review
-
“Combining the detail of a documentary with the empathy of the best fiction.”
- Daily Mail (London)
-
“An extraordinary epic, both sturdily constructed and beautiful.”
- San Francisco Chronicle
-
“Narrator Hiroto brings a subtle, down-to-earth realism to the story of Sunja.”
- Library Journal (starred audio review)
-
“An old-fashioned epic whose simple, captivating storytelling delivers both wisdom and truth.”
- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
-
“Pachinko remains gently affecting as an audio.”
- AudioFile
-
An exquisite, haunting epic...'moments of shimmering beauty and some glory, too,' illuminate the narrative...Lee's profound novel...is shaped by impeccable research, meticulous plotting, and empathic perception.
- Booklist (starred review)
-
“A powerful meditation on what immigrants sacrifice to achieve a home in the world.”
- Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author
-
A sprawling and immersive historical work... Reckoning with one determined, wounded family's place in history, Lee's novel is an exquisite meditation on the generational nature of truly forging a home.
- Publishers Weekly
-
PACHINKO is elegant and soulful, both intimate and sweeping. This story of several generations of one Korean family in Japan is the story of every family whose parents sacrificed for their children, every family whose children were unable to recognize the cost, but it's also the story of a specific cultural struggle in a riveting time and place. Min Jin Lee has written a big, beautiful book filled with characters I rooted for and cared about and remembered after I'd read the final page.
- Kate Christensen, Pen/Faulkner-winning author
-
The breadth and depth of challenges come through clearly, without sensationalization. The sporadic victories are oases of sweetness, without being saccharine. Lee makes it impossible not to develop tender feelings towards her characters--all of them, even the most morally compromised. Their multifaceted engagements with identity, family, vocation, racism, and class are guaranteed to provide your most affecting sobfest of the year.
- BookRiot
-
If proof were needed that one family's story can be the story of the whole world, then PACHINKO offers that proof. Min Jin Lee's novel is gripping from start to finish, crossing cultures and generations with breathtaking power. PACHINKO is a stunning achievement, full of heart, full of grace, full of truth.
- Erica Wagner, author of Ariel's Gift and Seizure