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Pachinko

Pachinko

Historical FictionLiterary Fiction
Pages
552
Published
2017
Language
English

Synopsis

Spanning much of the twentieth century, Pachinko follows four generations of a poor Korean family as history sweeps them from a small fishing village in Japanese-occupied Korea to the margins of society in Japan. It begins with Sunja, the beloved daughter of a boardinghouse keeper, whose unplanned pregnancy by a wealthy, married stranger threatens to shame her family — until a gentle, ailing minister offers to marry her and take her to Osaka.

There, Sunja and her descendants build lives as despised outsiders in a country that will never fully accept them, enduring poverty, war, prejudice, and the quiet compromises of survival. Through them, Min Jin Lee tells an intimate yet sweeping story of exile, identity, and endurance.

A National Book Award finalist, Pachinko is a rich, absorbing family saga about the accidents of history and the resilience of ordinary people.

Prose complexity
7/10

Vibe

ReflectiveEmotionalMelancholicThought-Provoking
Family SagaComing of AgeMultiple POVs
Writing3.0Impact3.0Characters4.0Plot3.0Atmosphere5.0

Genres

Historical Fiction Literary Fiction

About the author

M
Min Jin Lee

Min Jin Lee is a Korean American novelist, born in Seoul in 1968. Her family emigrated to the United States when she was seven and settled in Queens, New York. She studied history at Yale and law at Georgetown, and worked as a corporate lawyer in New York before ill health led her to leave the profession and write full time. Her first novel, Free Food for Millionaires, appeared in 2007. Her second, Pachinko, traces a Korean family across generations after they migrate to Japan; it was a finalist...

Characters

SunjaProtagonist

Daughter of a Yeongdo boardinghouse keeper, whose affair with a wealthy married man and marriage to an ailing minister carry her family into a lifetime of exile in Japan.

Isak BaekSupporting

The gentle, ailing Protestant minister who marries Sunja and brings her to his brother's household in Osaka.

Koh HansuSupporting

A wealthy, married fish broker with yakuza connections, whose money and influence shadow Sunja's family for decades.

Noa BaekSupporting

Sunja's elder son, a diligent and gifted student for whom the question of Korean and Japanese identity becomes the family's deepest wound.

Mozasu BaekSupporting

Sunja's younger son, who leaves school for the pachinko business and becomes a wealthy parlour owner in Yokohama.

All characters in Pachinko

Frequently asked questions

  • Is Pachinko based on a true story?

    Min Jin Lee spent decades researching the lives of Zainichi Koreans, descendants of Korean immigrants in Japan, to inform the historical and cultural backdrop of this novel. While the characters and their specific journeys are fictional, the struggles and experiences they face are deeply rooted in real historical events and societal discrimination.

  • Does Pachinko have a TV adaptation?

    An acclaimed television series based on the novel was produced by Apple TV+. It features a cast speaking Korean, Japanese, and English, reflecting the linguistic diversity within the story.

  • How does Pachinko connect to Min Jin Lee's other work?

    Pachinko is the second book in Min Jin Lee's loosely connected trilogy about the Korean diaspora, which she has referred to as "The Koreans." It follows her debut, Free Food for Millionaires (2007), and precedes American Hagwon, due in September 2026. The three books share themes of identity, migration, class and education rather than characters or plot — each stands entirely on its own and they can be read in any order.

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