The Island of Sea Women

What an incredible story.  Lisa See has out done herself yet again.  Sometimes you read a fabulous award winning novel and hope that the author can repeat the performance.   I started with Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.  After reading that book with my book discussion group, we rated that our favorite book.  Then with another book group I read, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane.  With this group we held a in person FaceTime discussion with Lisa.  Now this was I thought the best book she had written,  but now The Island of Sea Women,  she has published another incredible novel.

This is book is such a beautiful story.  Not only do you learn a history lesson about Korea and what happened there between the Japanese and the Koreans during the 1930s leading up to the Second World War and the Japanese colonialism.  Then the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima and afterwards, when the Americans came in and divided the country and the Korean War.  It was a turbulent time in the Korean history that I am sure many readers are unaware of, as I was,  until they read this book.

Lisa describes in intimate detail what it is like to be one of the haeuyeo, women who lived on the island of Jeju off the Korean coast, who were females divers.  Lisa is very adapt at writing about the life of these strong independent women who go out into the frigid waters off the island and dive to incredible depths to gather abalone, octopus, and other edible seafoods that they sell to support their families.  When they age out of diving or are too young to dive, they gather seaweed and other shellfish at the water's edge.  In this society women are the wage earners and the men stay home and take care of the children.  There are so many interesting angles to this book.

It is all based around the story of Young-sook and Mi-ja, two young girls who become close friends, and follows them through their lives, growing up to become haeuyeo, then as they get married, start their families and what happens when the war and other political differences separate them and challenges their relationship.    The tides ebb and flow driving them together and apart.  The waters are cold and the life is hard and Lisa See draws a clear picture of their lives.  All based on real events and people she interviewed, this novel is immersed in historical facts.