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8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster: Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2024
Mirinae Lee
North Korea, Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), Second World War fiction, Korean War
A dazzlingly original, moving and thought-provoking novel about one woman's struggle to survive throughout a century of Korean history
THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
WINNER OF THE 2024 WILLIAM SAROYAN INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR WRITING
LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2024
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 WILBUR SMITH ADVENTURE WRITING PRIZE
'Captivating' New York Times
'Dazzling' Financial Times
'Heartbreaking' Monica Ali
SLAVE. ESCAPE-ARTIST. MURDERER. TERRORIST. SPY. LOVER. MOTHER. TRICKSTER.
At the Golden Sunset retirement home, it is not unusual for residents to invent stories. So when elderly Ms Mook first begins to unspool her memories, the obituarist listening to her is sceptical. Stories of captivity, friendship, murder, assumed identities and spying. A life that moves from WWII Indonesia to Busan during the Korean war; from cold-war Pyongyang to a Protestant church in China. The adventures are so colourful and various, at times so unbelievable. Surely they can't all belong to the same woman. Can they?
8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2024, announced on 5th March 2024.
Praise for 8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster: Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2024
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Cross-dressing, spying, identity theft, motherhood and murder ... A dazzling feat of narrative sophistication and historical invention - Financial Times
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A gripping story set against the backdrop of Korea's turbulent history ... brilliant and original - Washington Post
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Mesmerising, heartbreaking ... a wild ride of a novel
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Soaring, fierce, bold and intoxicating
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A dazzling, visceral read. Intricately woven and playful, the prose has a brutal beating energy. At its heart is the fascinating Ms Mook, and the kaleidoscope of her life is a captivating history of Korea, a country torn apart
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Interrogates love, identity, betrayal, and everything it takes for one shape-shifting "trickster" to survive. Lee writes with sharp, ferocious energy, and I was riveted from the first page.
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Unflinching and tender, philosophical and mischievous, this playful novel conveys a sense of Korea's turbulent twentieth century through a charming, compelling protagonist who is not always a reliable narrator but who tells the truths that matter. I was captivated by Lee's masterful storytelling
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Fantastically original doesn't begin to describe this exhilarating, globe-spanning, decade-hopping masterpiece. Lee has achieved the impossible - from a fractured century of agonies and betrayals, she has woven a novel of immense beauty and regeneration
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