Review | The Kinship of Secrets – the true tale of sisters separated by the Korean war inspires a powerful novel
- Eugenia Kim again mines her own family’s history for her latest novel
- Shifting the story between the United States and South Korea illustrates the power of separation and the duty of sacrifice
The Kinship of Secrets
by Eugenia Kim
Bloomsbury
In a poignant afterword to The Kinship of Secrets, Korean-American author Eugenia Kim describes the Korean war as having been not only the fifth deadliest conflict in human history, but also “the forgotten war”.
In this gentle historical saga, her second to date, Kim opens a window onto the conflict through the story of a Korean family torn apart by war but brought together by love, and by secrets dating back to the Japanese occupation.
Told through the alternating perspectives of two sisters, Inja and Miran, and inspired by the story of her own family, Kim’s narrative spans two continents and more than two decades. It opens in a residential enclave of Seoul, with the sounds of a weary newsmonger broadcasting the headlines of the day to the still sleeping residents.
It is 1950, the year of the invasion by North Korea. The man is talking of a retreat by the North Korean People’s Army and how president Syngman Rhee is urging the people of Korea to “trust our military without being unsettled in the least, to carry on with their daily work and support military operations”.
But “invasion”, like the word “communist”, is not a concept understood by three-year-old Inja, who is woken by the newsmonger’s pronouncements. Slipping out of the bed she shares with Halmeoni, her grandmother, she peeks out of the door to ask her uncle about what the newsmonger is saying. Having heard her uncle and aunt argue the previous day about whether to leave their home and head south, she realises this invasion could lead to an exciting change of routine. She assures her uncle that she can not only pack by herself but also help Halmeoni, who needs a cane to stand.
