The Calligrapher's Daughter

Najin's father, a calligrapher, clings to tradition as the Japanese occupation threatens Korean culture in the early twentieth century. He continually slights his daughter, the curious Najin, who holds back her questions and hides the hurt that comes from her father's insensitivity. At first, Lorna Raver's mature voice seems a curious choice for the young heroine. Yet Raver's throaty richness becomes more appropriate as the production proceeds. It fits the royalty of the Korean court, where Najin's mother sends her to escape an arranged marriage. Raver's resonance also makes sense as young Najin faces threats beyond her level of maturity. With devotion and strength Najin works to maintain her family's well-being during times of war and poverty, ignoring her own desires for scholarship and love. S.W. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

Starred review from June 1, 2009
This debut novel, inspired by the life of the author’s Korean mother, is a beautiful, deliberate and satisfying story spanning 30 years of Korean history. The tradition-bound aristocratic calligrapher Han refuses to name his daughter because she is born just as the Japanese occupy Korea early in the 20th century. When Han finds a husband for Najin (nicknamed after her mother’s birthplace) at 14, her mother objects and instead sends her to the court of the doomed royal Yi family to learn refinement. Najin goes to college and becomes a teacher, proving herself not only as a scholar but as a patriot and humanitarian. She returns home to marry, but her new husband goes without her to study in America when she is denied a visa. As the Japanese systematically obliterate ancient Korean culture and the political climate worsens, so do Najin’s fortunes. Her family is reduced to poverty, their home is seized and Najin is imprisoned as a spy while WWII escalates. The author writes at a languorous pace, choosing not to sully her elegant pages with raw brutality, but the key to the story is Korea’s monumental suffering at the hands of the Japanese.