Long for This World, Sonya Chung
Long for This World, Sonya Chung
List: $17.99 | Sale: $12.59
Club: $8.99

Long for This World
A Novel

Author: Sonya Chung

Narrator: Hillary Huber

Unabridged: 9 hr 48 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 03/22/2010

Categories: Fiction, Family Life


Synopsis

In 1953, on a remote island in South Korea, a young boy stows away on the ferry that is carrying his older brother and sister-in-law to the mainland. Fifty-two years later, Han Hyun-kyu is on a plane back to Korea, leaving behind his wife and grown children in America. It is his daughter, Jane—a war photographer recently injured in a bombing in Baghdad and forced to return to New York—who journeys to find him in the South Korean town where his brothers have settled. Here, father and daughter take refuge from their demons, unearth passions, and, in the wake of tragedy, discover something deeper and more enduring than they'd imagined possible.

Long for This World is a pointillist triumph—depicting whole worlds through the details of a carefully prepared meal or a dark childhood memory. But author Sonya Chung is also working on a massive scale, effortlessly moving between domestic intimacies and the global stage—Iraq, Paris, Darfur, Syria—to illuminate the relationship between troubled world affairs and personal devastation. The result is a profound portrayal of the human experience, both large and small. Long for This World establishes Chung as a thrilling new voice in fiction.

About Sonya Chung

Sonya Chung's short fiction and essays have appeared in the Threepenny Review, BOMB Magazine, Crab Orchard Review, and Sonora Review, among others. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee and a recipient of the Charles Johnson Fiction Award and the Bronx Council on the Arts Literary Residency and Fellowship. She teaches fiction writing at the Gotham Writers' Workshop, New York University, and Rutgers University, and she is a regular contributor to the literary blog The Millions.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Kay on September 12, 2017

Surprise, depth, and insight into the human experience, as well as Korean family dynamics and the place of harmony in modern times. Quite recommended. Audiobook narrator was like listening to a person tell a crafted yet natural storyline.......more

Goodreads review by Wendy on March 21, 2010

Long for This World is bold and subtle, thought-provoking and entertaining. Page after page is filled with writing that made me think: Aha! I know that feeling, but could not articulate it (at all, let alone as beautifully), revealing the many layers that can course through a single moment. The story......more

Goodreads review by Edan on March 25, 2010

Since both Sonya Chung and I write for The Millions, I was kind of scared to read this book--what if I didn't like it? How would I handle that? I didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings, and I didn't want to be dishonest either. Thankfully, I really enjoyed Sonya's novel, which read so smoothly, even......more

Goodreads review by Judy on May 12, 2010

On the surface this book is about a 65 year old doctor who left Korea as a young man to follow his dreams in the U.S. He returns to his roots, visiting his prosperous younger brother and his family in a small town in Korea. It's also about family dynamics; how our parents influence who we become as......more

Goodreads review by Sylvia on June 26, 2018

Something very soothing in the pace of this novel. Many points of view, which can be a little disorienting at first, but ultimately makes for a rich reading experience. Complex characters, cultural differences and emotional wisdom make this a worthy read.......more