8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster by Mirinae Lee – Trade Paperback – Korean Reads

Fantastically original doesnt begin to describe this exhilarating globe-spanning, decade-hopping masterpiece. Lee has achieved the impossiblefrom a fractured century of agonies and betrayals, she has woven a novel of immense beauty and regeneration. Junot Daz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Winner of the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing

Longlisted for the Women’s Prize in Fiction.

Longlisted for the 2024 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize, Best Published Novel

Joining the acclaimed ranks of Pachinko and A Woman is No Man, a riveting and genre-bending debut of love and survival, set in the demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea.

Life near the North Korean border is a zero-sum game, an ongoing battle in which you either win or you lose. This dangerous, shadowed netherworld is home to an unforgettable woman known only as the trickster.

Inspired by the story of Lees great aunt, one of the oldest women to escape alone from North Korea, 8 Lives of a Century Old Trickster consists of eight dark and spellbinding chapters that follow this remarkable character and her family as they struggle to survive during the most turbulent times of modern Korean history. Mirinae Lees trickster is a shapeshifterthroughout the course of these interconnected chapters she is a slave, an escape artist, a murderer, a terrorist, a spy, a lover, and a mothera woman who must often choose the unthinkable to survive war and conquest in Korea. Her story is a beguiling, complex tale of love and survival that will keep you rivetedand speculatinguntil the very end thanks to Lees brilliant talent for sleight of hand.

A fascinating look at survival, trauma, and family, 8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster is an incredible literary debut from a bright new talent.