“Epic . . . Captivating . . . Choi’s prose shines with poetry and intelligence.”
—Jasmine Vojdani, New York Magazine
“[Flashlight] will make your head spin in the best way.”
—Dakota Johnson x TeaTime Book Club
“Pack[s] an astonishing amount of beauty and meaning.”
—Lily Meyer, The Atlantic
“A story that draws on geopolitics even as it obsessively returns to a single family catastrophe . . . Shocking.”
—Colin Dwyer, NPR’s “The Book Ahead”
“Slippery and explosive.”
—Miguel Salazar and Laura Thompson, The New York Times Book Review
“[Flashlight] will leave readers guessing until (almost) the very end . . . A fictional reimagining of one of history’s darkest chapters and a sweeping, unsettling portrait of one family caught in the throes of change and torn apart by tragedy.”
—Alexis Burling, San Francisco Chronicle
“In Choi’s novels, memory is fallible, people are not always who they seem to be, and the past can always be counted on to force its way back into the present. This makes her books hard to write about but a lot of fun to think about and to read.”
—Emily Gould, New York Magazine’s “Book Gossip”
“One of Choi’s longer novels, so it gives you a little more to chew into in the summer if you’re looking for that weeklong read . . . And she’s just a wonderful stylist . . . and really understands a lot about family dynamics and inner psychology.”
—John Williams, The Washington Post’s “Post Reports”
“Magnificent . . . An ode to the difficult choices we make to build a life and the ways in which they all can come falling down in a moment.”
—Michael Welch, Chicago Review of Books
“Choi’s elegant writing is evident in this ambitious tale . . . A propulsive story about family secrets and displacement.”
—Wadzanai Mhute, The Boston Globe
“A great big ambitious novel . . . Flashlight is that elusive type of book that so many readers I know are always looking for: a big fat novel to get lost in.”
—Maris Kreizman, The Maris Review
“A whodunit with geopolitical implications and all the brutal big feelings of familial drama.”
—Madeline Leung Coleman, New York magazine
“A captivating examination of family and belonging.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“Aching, beautiful, utterly compelling.”
—Dan Sheehan, Literary Hub
“[Flashlight] pushes the boundaries of family, ethnicity, society, country, and history by challenging, parsing, and piecing together the complicated multitudes of tangled identities . . . [Choi] brilliantly shines the titular flashlight on each of her characters, catching their habits and quirks, exposing their intimacies.”
—Terry Hong, Booklist (starred review)
“[Choi is] a writer at the top of her game, capable of crafting a well-plotted and complex story while remaining attuned to small internal motivations, along with intersectional and cultural liminalities, those edges between surf and sand where so much violence happens, as much to bodies as to hearts, minds, and homes.”
—Emily Bowles, Library Journal
“In this gripping novel, Susan Choi’s seemingly disparate clues coalesce in a tale of espionage and global conflict, and the heartrending ways in which world struggles play out in individual lives.”
—Jennifer Brown, Shelf Awareness
“[Flashlight] has important things to say, and Choi is a writer you can trust to make the journey worthwhile. Never sentimental, never predictable, this aptly titled novel illuminates dark passages both fictional and real.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“An astute portrait of political upheaval, family dynamics and the constant need to recalibrate one’s expectations. The novel is an intellectual work-out, but a rewarding one.”
—Michael Magras, BookPage
“This gripping story of a family in crisis is tough to shake.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Flashlight is instantly bewitching: a mysterious family tragedy whose solution reaches beyond psychology into geopolitics. Susan Choi’s fictional investigation reveals a writer at the height of her spectacular powers.”
—Jennifer Egan, author of The Candy House
“In this superbly crafted book, the fraught geopolitics of family life—the official secrets, the acts of espionage, the diplomatic failures—are set against the intimacies, grievances, conflicting memories, and unmet needs of national allegiance. Ferociously smart and full of surprises, Flashlight is thrilling to the last.”
—Eleanor Catton, author of Birnam Wood
“In a brilliant feat of storytelling, both intimate and sweeping, Susan Choi has created a profoundly moving epic that blends a tender family portrait with a haunting examination of the Korean diaspora. Flashlight is that rare novel that has everything I want in fiction: gorgeous writing, fascinating characters I fell in love with, an immersive, addictive story with an ending that made me gasp, then cry. I’m in awe.”
—Angie Kim, author of Happiness Falls
“Flashlight is a sensitive familial portrait, rigorous in its scope and complexity of feeling. Susan Choi is a master of rendering relationships with utter particularity.”
—Raven Leilani, author of Luster
“I devoured Flashlight. Once I started reading, I couldn’t put it down, and once I finished, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. The plot builds like a symphony rising to a crescendo, full of surprise and wonder. The story is as astonishing as it is entirely plausible. Susan Choi clearly knows well the fraught geopolitics of Korea and Japan, and did her homework.”
—Barbara Demick, author of Nothing to Envy and Daughters of the Bamboo Grove
The Booker Prize honors the best original novels written in the English-speaking world. The 2025 shortlist features six selections from a longlist of 13 outstanding books chosen earlier this year. From soul-stirring explorations of memory and identity to sweeping love stories, these exceptional works of fiction transport readers from the windswept shores of Northern England […]
The National Book Foundation continues to honor the best in American literature with the prestigious National Book Awards, and the longlist for 2025 has finally been revealed. With hopeful narratives, eye-opening personal memoirs and inspirational fables for young readers, here we celebrate the wonders of the written word. Fiction Nonfiction Poetry Young People’s Literature Translated […]
The Booker Prize is a prestigious award honoring the best original novels written in the English-speaking world. This year’s longlist includes books that vividly delve into memory and identity, soul-stirring introspective journeys, evocative prose and page-turners that grip and astonish. Brimming with richly drawn characters, bold debut novels and stories that tether between make believe […]
I Want to Burn This Place Down by Maris Kreizman is a funny, honest and hopeful collection of essays from a cultural critic. Maris joins us to talk about the golden age of blogging, Mad Men, magazines, physical vs digital reading, gateway authors and more with host Miwa Messer. This episode of Poured Over was […]