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. |
From inside the book
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... wasn't raining. He also said he had heard of a newly opened UN refugee camp some twenty kilometers south. No one much believed him about the camp or his store of food, but he'd surely suffered them and people began to gather their ...
... wasn't raining. He also said he had heard of a newly opened UN refugee camp some twenty kilometers south. No one much believed him about the camp or his store of food, but he'd surely suffered them and people began to gather their ...
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... wasn't proper sports instruction in the schools. Two of his comrades stepped down with him. He motioned to Hee-Sung as he asked for the ball and commanded, “Watch me!” She'd tried to meld into the scatter of the other children but she ...
... wasn't proper sports instruction in the schools. Two of his comrades stepped down with him. He motioned to Hee-Sung as he asked for the ball and commanded, “Watch me!” She'd tried to meld into the scatter of the other children but she ...
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... wasn't very pained at all. June wound the belt around his leg and looped it through itself before pulling on it as hard as she could. Ji-Young screamed and momentarily fainted. But the bleeding stopped, and with all her strength she ...
... wasn't very pained at all. June wound the belt around his leg and looped it through itself before pulling on it as hard as she could. Ji-Young screamed and momentarily fainted. But the bleeding stopped, and with all her strength she ...
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... wasn't strong enough. She could not do it. So she halted and laid him on the ground, gripping the stump again with two hands. The cars were slowly rolling past them, only a third of the train remaining. “How come you stopped?” he ...
... wasn't strong enough. She could not do it. So she halted and laid him on the ground, gripping the stump again with two hands. The cars were slowly rolling past them, only a third of the train remaining. “How come you stopped?” he ...
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... wasn't looking at her as he always did with his clear-eyed directness. He clutched the ring of keys at his side. And all at once June felt that his interest in her plans masked a grave disappointment. He said, “I am sorry that I could ...
... wasn't looking at her as he always did with his clear-eyed directness. He clutched the ring of keys at his side. And all at once June felt that his interest in her plans masked a grave disappointment. He said, “I am sorry that I could ...
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