If you like a multigenerational story about love and loyalty and family, look no further than If You Leave Me by Crystal Hana Kim (2018; 432 pages).
In war-torn Korea, the country is splitting in half and Haemi feels like she’s splitting in half, too. Her family has fled their village due to the fighting and they’re now refugees, surviving day to day. And Haemi has a choice to make. She is in love with her childhood friend Kyunghwan and he loves her back… but another boy in the village, Jisoo, has proposed marriage to Haemi. Jisoo is well off, he can provide for her family, while Kyunghwan has nothing but dreams. Haemi yearns to follow her heart with the boy she loves, but her heart cares just as much about her ailing little brother who desperately needs food and medicine. Haemi must make a choice that will affect not only her own life but the life of her family for generations to come. And that’s only the beginning.
I loved this multigenerational novel set in Korea during and after the Korean War. It was a book that I just wanted to keep reading forever because I loved the characters and I was fascinated to see how their choices took their lives in different directions. Crystal Hana Kim writes with such emotion and her prose is heartbreaking; I felt like I was living the story along with the characters. Readers get the story from multiple points of view allowing us to see the story from different perspectives.
Readalikes:
Pick this one up if you enjoyed…
- Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (2017; 490 pages). This is another multigenerational tale of a family in Korea having to make hard decisions that have repercussions through the generations. This one was a major bestseller last year.
- The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah (2015; 440 pages). If you like your historical fiction set during war and with strong female protagonists trying to make things work, you probably liked The Nightingale and I bet you would like If You Leave Me, too.
— Abby Johnson, Collection Development Lead
