Year of Impossible Goodbyes

by Sook Nyul Choi

Overview

It is 1945, and courageous ten-year-old Sookan and her family must endure the cruelties of the Japanese military occupying Korea.  Police captain Narita does his best to destroy everything of value to the family, but he cannot break their spirit.  Sookan's father is with the resistance movement in Manchuria and her older brothers have been sent away to labor camps.  Her mother is forced to supervise a sock factory and Sookan herself must wear a uniform and attend a Japanese school.



Then the war ends.  Out come the colorful Korean silks and bags of white rice.  But Communist Russian troops have taken control of North Korea and once again the family is suppressed.  Sookan and her family know their only hope for freedom lies in a dangerous escape to Americancontrolled South Korea.



Here is the incredible story of one family's love for each other and their determination to risk everything to find freedom.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780440407591
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	01/01/1993
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	176
Sales rank:	596,412
Product dimensions:	5.13(w) x 7.62(h) x 0.42(d)
Lexile:	840L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Sook Nyul Choi was born in Pyongyang, North Korea. As a young refugee during the Korean War, Choi learned to face injustice and cruelty with courage and determination. Choi’s novels, which are based upon her own experiences, have enriched the lives of young people all over the world.Choi emigrated to the Unites States to pursue her college education. She graduated from Manhattanville College in 1962. Except for a brief period during which she worked in the business world, she taught in public and parochial schools in New York and Massachusetts for 20 years while raising her two daughters. Sook Nyul Choi is the author of Year of Impossible Goodbyes, a novel about 10-year-old Sookan and her life in Korea during the aftermath of World War II. It has been translated into Korean, French, Italian, and Japanese. It is an ALA Notable Book and has received many other honors as well.Choi also wrote Echoes of the White Giraffe, a sequel to Year of Impossible Goodbyes. Sookan, again the main character, is now 15 and a refugee growing up amidst the sorrows of the Korean War. Her story brings to life the time, place, and intense emotions of a people surrounded by turmoil and tragedy.

Editorial Reviews

In 1945, 10-year-old Sookan's homeland of North Korea is occupied by the Japanese. Left behind while her resistance-fighter father hides in Manchuria and her older brothers toil in Japanese labor camps, Sookan and her remaining family members run a sock factory for the war effort, bolstered only by the dream that the fighting will soon cease. Sookan watches her people--forced to renounce their native ways--become increasingly angry and humiliated. When war's end brings only a new type of domination--from the Russian communists--Sookan and her younger brother must make a harrowing escape across the 38th parallel after their mother has been detained at a Russian checkpoint. Drawn partly from Choi's own experiences, her debut novel is a sensitive and honest portrayal of amazing courage. In clear, graceful prose, she describes a sad period of history that is astonishing in its horror and heart-wrenching in its truth. Readers cannot fail to be uplifted by this account of the triumph of the human spirit in an unjust world. Ages 10-up. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Gr 5-9-- Ten-year-old Sookan tells of her Korean family's experiences during the Japanese occupation as World War II ends. The Japanese commit cruel, fear-provoking acts against this proud, hopeful family and against the young girls who worked in a sweatshop making socks for the Japanese army. Relief, hope, and anticipation of the return of male family members after the Japanese defeat is short lived as the Russians occupy the country, bringing their language, their customs, and communism to the village. Equally as insensitive to the pride and possessions of the Koreans, they are as bad as the Japanese. Plans are made for Sookan, her mother, and younger brother to escape to South Korea. However, their guide betrays them, causing the children to be separated from their mother, and the two begin a daring and frightening journey to cross the 38th parallel to safety. Through Sookan, the author shares an incredible story of the love and determination of her family, the threatening circumstances that they endured during occupations by two totalitarian governments, and the risks they took to escape to freedom. Readers will get a double bonus from this book--a good story, well told, and the reaffirmation of our faith in the human spirit against incredible adversities . -- Lydia Champlin, Beachwood City Schools, OH

School Library Journal

"Moving in its statement of human rights . . . Readers will find themselves moved back in time and forward in spirit." The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Starred —

From the Publisher

Sookan, a 10-year-old North Korean girl, tells the story of her life under Japanese rule and then under Russian rule at the end of WWII, concluding with a harrowing attempt at escape to the South. Moore delivers a dramatic performance that evokes the terrible ordeals that many North Koreans had to endure. With a clear, young voice, the narrator draws the listener into Sookan's experience, while giving other characters voices that are thoroughly convincing. This is a fine performance of a beautifully told tale that provides insight into the history of an Asian country torn apart by foreign powers. S.S.R. © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

OCT/NOV 99 - AudioFile