Dear Reader,
A note from today's guest author, Angela Hur...
My husband and I take turns being immigrant and native, moving back and forth between countries. We met in Sweden, had two kids in California, and brought them back with us to Stockholm, where we live now between the city and a forest. My novel Folklorn is about family, history, generational trauma, particle physics, storytelling and Korean myth--all told through a genre-blending, fantastical, gothic lens.
I have 5 copies of Folklorn to give away to readers. Simply email me at: libraryteam@workman.com to enter the giveaway.
It's such a pleasure to visit the book club...
My kid's only precocious before bedtime. Stalling, she'll ask, "When people invented clocks, how'd they know what time it was?" and "Are zebras white or black?" Another night: "Hundred years ago, when girls couldn't be scientists or wear pants, how'd things change?" She pays attention when it's a personal injustice, hypothetical or historical, so this was her takeaway when I'd explained how people can be wrong now or in the past, how things can become fairer now and in the future.
"Tell me again, Mama"--I'm already tense--"how Harabeoji didn't want you to marry Papa."
Glossing over the details, I tell her how her harabeoji (grandfather, in Korean) had initially wanted me to marry a Korean American, like myself, who understood both cultures. At least, a fellow American, but definitely not a European from the other side of the world. I don't tell her how Harabeoji got his friend to explain in more fluent English how he feared I'd be far away in a foreign country, never come home again, just as he'd never returned to Korea. My mother had her doubts too, reminding me how difficult it was to be an immigrant. I already understood because I was living in Stockholm at the time, feeling alien to myself, lost and diminished.
Instead, I say: "Harabeoji thought it'd be easier to marry someone from the same country. But he met Papa and knew he was the best person ever. Then you came into our lives and Harabeoji couldn't imagine a world without you." This is all true. "So even stubborn people can change their minds, be happier afterward. If enough people change their minds together--"
"Then girls can become scientists and wear pants."
I never expected that my daughter would want to hear this story multiple times and hoped she hadn't told my mother-in-law. But recently I realized, it's her Origin Myth--how she entered the world, how she's the explanation for why things are and should be.
Another oft-requested story: When she was a few days old, I'd cried on the phone because I was afraid my old car, after stalling a few times, wouldn't be safe for my new baby. My father told me not to cry, don't worry. Next day, he pooled money with my brother and bought a new Hyundai, driving it from L.A. to San Francisco. "Harabeoji put the keys in your baby hand."
My father died a couple of years ago in his office chair, with fresh print-out photos of his one-month-old grandson on his desk. I live in Stockholm again, as wife and mother. I tell my daughter that someday she can also tell stories of Harabeoji to
her baby brother.
-- Angela Hur
Email libraryteam@workman.com to be entered in a drawing to win one of five copies of Folklorn.
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
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THE END OF THE OCEAN (Fiction) by Maja Lunde
A captivating novel about a father, a daughter, and a journey that begins where the water ends. An evocative tale of the search for love and connection, this book is a profoundly moving father daughter story of survival. We're giving away FIVE copies of this incredible book, click here to enter.
Go to: AUTHORBUZZ click on THE END OF THE OCEAN to read more and to email author Maja Lunde, you'll get a reply.
KIDSBUZZ: Click here to discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win.
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