{ "item_title" : "Honey in the Wound", "item_author" : [" Jiyoung Han "], "item_description" : "A lyrical and suspenseful debut novel about a mysteriously gifted Korean family confronting the brutality of the Japanese empire, Honey in the Wound is an epic tale of survival and the reclamation of power. A sister disappears and returns as a tiger. A mother's voice compels the truth from any tongue. A granddaughter divines secrets in others' dreams. These women are all of one lineage--a Korean family split across decades and borders by Japanese imperialism. At this saga's heart is Young-Ja, a girl who infuses food with her emotions. She revels in her gift for cooking, nourishing the people she loves with her cheerfulness. But her sunny childhood comes to an end in 1931 when Japanese soldiers crush her family's defiance against the Empire. Young-Ja is cast adrift, her food turning increasingly bitter with grief. When a Korean rebel fighter notices her talents, however, she is whisked off to Manchuria to join a secretive sisterhood of beautiful teahouse spies. There, Young-Ja finds a new sense of belonging and starts using her abilities for the resistance. But the Imperial Army is not yet finished with her... Decades later, Young-Ja lives alone in Seoul, withdrawn from the world until her Tokyo-born granddaughter Rinako bursts into her life with the ability to see into dreams. In cultivating a tentative bond, they confront the long-buried past in a stunning emotional climax. As an unforgettable family perseveres in the long shadow of colonialism, Honey in the Wound transports readers to mountain forests where tiger-girls stalk, to Manchurian teahouses and opium dens where charming smiles veil secrets, and to the modern metropolises of Tokyo and Seoul where restless ghosts stir. This debut novel is a tender yet powerful multi-generational drama that shines light onto the twentieth century's darkest corners and gives voice to those who bore witness.", "item_img_path" : "https://covers3.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/1/66/820/216/1668202166_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "28.99", "online_price" : "28.99", "our_price" : "28.99", "club_price" : "28.99", "savings_pct" : "0", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "club_savings_pct" : "0", "club_savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "28.99" } }

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In this family, the women are magic. Jiyoung Han’s Honey in the Wound follows a Korean family across generations in which secret powers enable women's survival. 

In 1915, shortly after the beginning of the Japanese occupation of Korea, twins Geum-Ja and Geum-Jin witness a tiger trapped and killed. Soon afterward, Geum-Ja disappears and begins to return to her brother in the form of a tiger. Geum-Jin later meets and falls in love with a woman named Jung-Soon whose voice has the power to make people tell the truth and divulge their secrets. Their youngest daughter, Young-Ja, grows up with the power to imbue food she prepares with her emotions, flavoring every bite. In each generation, no one knows why these women possess their powers, but their impacts are potent. 

Japan’s brutal imperial rule of Korea has intense consequences for all these characters. In 1931, Jung-Soon forms a resistance network with other local women, passing on warnings about Japanese raids and supporting neighbors in need. When her actions are discovered by Japanese soldiers, the response is horrific violence. Both Geum-Jin and Jung-Soon are killed, and Young-Ja, still a child, must flee. At 19, she meets further violence when she is kidnapped by Japanese soldiers and forced into sexual slavery. The novel traces Young-Ja’s journeys across oceans—to Manchuria, to Seoul and to Tokyo, where her granddaughter eventually helps her tell her life story.

The women in Honey in the Wound subvert expectations, finding ways to reclaim their voices, even when they are repressed and it’s not easy to be heard. Watching each character find a source of strength and fight for her sense of self is remarkable. The magical elements of the story don’t distract from the historical detail, but are instead presented as inherent to the women’s lives, part of the fabric of their existence and resistance.

Han’s prose and imagery are sharp throughout the novel, giving a clear sense of time and place, and making the characters’ complexity come alive in their trauma, joy, sorrow and connection. Honey in the Wound is a moving demonstration of the way that individual acts of resistance can preserve memories and stories that challenge the legacies of empire and colonization.