Witty, suspenseful, heart-wrenching and totally engaging. From an inviting prologue that brought me to a chapter of Lee Saeri’s divorce incident to her taking a job as an unofficial obituarist and a biographer at a retirement home, I met 98-year-old Mook Miran in her journey through an exhilarated and decade-hopping adventure traversing the 1930s to present-day setting in a complete historical madness;

Saeri: “Which three words would you choose to sum up your life?”
Ms Mook: “You genuinely believe a person can sum up her life in just three words? Eight. I will give you eight words. Slave. Escape-Artist. Murderer. Terrorist. Spy. Lover. And Mother.

Totally loved the storytelling and way it was plotted; a nicely built tension that utterly hooked me to Miran’s life journeys (I actually go reading it in order despite how the chapters appeared not in sequence), very bold and harrowing yet so spellbindingly told. From her childhood living in the outskirts of Pyongyang with her mom and abusive misogynist dad, Miran brought me into her perspective through the WWII and Korean War— of how people were ruptured from the traumatic violence, totalitarianism, and being used in its political intrigue.

Having a devastating comfort women chapter (that part in 4th life— “Even their own society, their Korean fatherland, would silence them, branding them whores. Calling those girls prostitutes would be a lot easier…” wretched me), of familial, friendship, love and motherhood as well that cunning espionage chapter which thrilled me much. Miran’s dynamic was too enticing and I liked how her stories enthralled me to her present scene with another trickster tale. Loved the ending and how it relates back to Miran’s 1st life— that ‘I ate earth when I was young’ and the last paragraph from Saeri’s perspective; so vivid, shooked me a bit but overall riveting.

Almost a powerful and epic read to me, an insight that was written as well inspired from the author’s late great-aunt’s story of escaping North Korea, so highly recommended!

Thank you Times Reads for the gifted review copy!