September book selection: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Das Merienda Haus widmet sich in dieser Runde Pachinko von Min Jin Lee. Der Roman folgt vier Generationen einer koreanischen Familie, die in Japan um ihren Platz in der Gesellschaft kämpft. Die Geschichte beginnt im Korea des frühen 20. Jahrhunderts und spannt einen Bogen über Jahrzehnte hinweg. Themen wie Diskriminierung, familiäre Loyalität und der tägliche Überlebenskampf stehen im Zentrum der Erzählung. Min Jin Lee verknüpft persönliche Schicksale mit den historischen Umbrüchen der Zeit. Die Besprechung lädt dazu ein, über die Fragen von Heimat und Zugehörigkeit nachzudenken.

That moment of the book club history just came... We get into a Family Saga! For this meeting, we travel across Korea and Japan through a sweeping story about migration, resilience, and identity. Pachinko invites us to explore how history shapes individual lives and how families carry both the burdens and the hopes of the generations that came before them. Through intimate personal stories set against the backdrop of major historical upheavals, the novel asks a powerful question: how do ordinary people preserve dignity, love, and belonging when the world around them constantly denies them a place? About the Book The story begins in early 20th-century Korea with Sunja, the beloved daughter of a poor but proud family living in a small fishing village. After an unexpected pregnancy threatens her future, she accepts a marriage proposal from a kind minister and moves to Japan, beginning a life marked by hardship, sacrifice, and perseverance. The novel follows four generations of Sunja’s family as they struggle to build lives in a country that treats them as outsiders. Facing discrimination, poverty, war, and social exclusion, each generation must confront difficult choices about identity, survival, and belonging. Spanning decades and moving between Korea and Japan, Pachinko weaves together themes of family loyalty, cultural displacement, and the quiet courage required to endure history. About the Author Min Jin Lee is a Korean-American writer known for her powerful explorations of migration, identity, and the experiences of the Korean diaspora. Her family immigrated to the United States when she was a child, and she later studied history at Yale University before pursuing a career in writing. Curiosities Lee spent years researching the history of Koreans living in Japan while writing Pachinko, conducting interviews and studying the social realities of the community. Pachinko became an international bestseller and has been adapted into a televisi...