The SurrenderedRead an essay by Chang-rae Lee here. The bestselling, award-winning writer of Native Speaker, Aloft, and My Year Abroad returns with his biggest, most ambitious novel yet: a spellbinding story of how love and war echo through an entire lifetime. With his three critically acclaimed novels, Chang-rae Lee has established himself as one of the most talented writers of contemporary literary fiction. Now, with The Surrendered, Lee has created a book that amplifies everything we've seen in his previous works, and reads like nothing else. It is a brilliant, haunting, heartbreaking story about how love and war inalterably change the lives of those they touch. June Han was only a girl when the Korean War left her orphaned; Hector Brennan was a young GI who fled the petty tragedies of his small town to serve his country. When the war ended, their lives collided at a Korean orphanage where they vied for the attentions of Sylvie Tanner, the beautiful yet deeply damaged missionary wife whose elusive love seemed to transform everything. Thirty years later and on the other side of the world, June and Hector are reunited in a plot that will force them to come to terms with the mysterious secrets of their past, and the shocking acts of love and violence that bind them together. As Lee unfurls the stunning story of June, Hector, and Sylvie, he weaves a profound meditation on the nature of heroism and sacrifice, the power of love, and the possibilities for mercy, salvation, and surrendering oneself to another. Combining the complex themes of identity and belonging of Native Speaker and A Gesture Life with the broad range, energy, and pure storytelling gifts of Aloft, Chang-rae Lee has delivered his most ambitious, exciting, and unforgettable work yet. It is a mesmerizing novel, elegantly suspenseful and deeply affecting. |
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... hadn't been cold when they stopped just before dusk and she decided they ought to keep moving while they had the chance. To keep moving was always safer than lingering in one place, and there was nothing back at the depot to eat, anyway ...
... hadn't been cold when they stopped just before dusk and she decided they ought to keep moving while they had the chance. To keep moving was always safer than lingering in one place, and there was nothing back at the depot to eat, anyway ...
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... hadn't been bombed to rubble, were alternately occupied by both sides in retreat and advance, and then by passing refugees like themselves. It didn't matter that sometimes the owners were present and still living there. A few days ...
... hadn't been bombed to rubble, were alternately occupied by both sides in retreat and advance, and then by passing refugees like themselves. It didn't matter that sometimes the owners were present and still living there. A few days ...
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... hadn't actually witnessed her mother's and sister's deaths, or, for that matter, her father's. And then, for all she knew, her older brother, despite the surety of her instinct, might very well be hiking north through the hills with the ...
... hadn't actually witnessed her mother's and sister's deaths, or, for that matter, her father's. And then, for all she knew, her older brother, despite the surety of her instinct, might very well be hiking north through the hills with the ...
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... hadn't bothered saying goodbye. They would have to learn of her departure from Habi, or from someone else in the building, or when the new owners moved in, and they likely wouldn't pause or think more than a second about it, which was ...
... hadn't bothered saying goodbye. They would have to learn of her departure from Habi, or from someone else in the building, or when the new owners moved in, and they likely wouldn't pause or think more than a second about it, which was ...
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Contents
THREE | |
FOUR Fort Lee 1986 | |
FIVE Yongin South Korea 1953 | |
EIGHT | |
NINE | |
THIRTEEN | |
FOURTEEN | |
FIFTEEN | |
SIXTEEN | |
SEVENTEEN | |
EIGHTEEN | |
NINETEEN | |
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Common terms and phrases
already anymore arms asked aunties began beneath Benjamin Betty Harris body breath Bruno can’t chest Clines cottage crying dark don’t want door Dora drinking eyes face father feeling felt finally fingers Fort Lee girl gone hadn’t hair hand happened Harris he’d head Hector I’ve Ilion inside Itaewon June June’s Jung kissed knees knew leave legs light Livorno look morning mother mouth neck never Nicholas night nodded officer okay Old Rudy once orphanage Patricia Cahill perhaps pulled pushed quickly rest Reverend Lum Reverend Tanner seemed Seoul she’d shoulders side simply sitting sleep smell soldiers Solferino somehow someone soon sorry stay stepped Stolz stopped suddenly sure Sylvie Sylvie’s talk tell There’s they’d things thought told Tom Harris took turned voice wait walked wasn’t week What’s window woman Zelenko