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Pachinko
- Narrated by: Allison Hiroto
- Length: 18 hrs and 14 mins
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Summary
Yeongdo, Korea - 1911. In a small fishing village on the banks of the East Sea, a club-footed, cleft-lipped man marries a 15-year-old girl. The couple have one child: their beloved daughter, Sunja.
When Sunja falls pregnant by a married yakuza, the family face ruin. But then, Isak, a Christian minister, offers her a chance of salvation: a new life in Japan as his wife. Following a man she barely knows to a hostile country in which she has no friends and no home, and whose language she cannot speak, Sunja's salvation is just the beginning of her story.
What listeners say about Pachinko
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Overall
- Chris N.
- 25-02-20
Great old-fashioned saga but with a modern feel as well.
Honestly written story. Unpretentious and engaging. Nicely read too. I now need six more words
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1 person found this helpful
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- SLA
- 25-11-21
Loved it! Well narrated. Moving story.
Really enjoyed this moving story set in Korea and Japan. Well narrated and structured.
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- Amazon Customer
- 27-09-21
loved it
I loved every minute - exquisitely told. beautiful story covering 5 generations and moves seamlessly between charactera
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- Amazon Customer
- 24-07-21
Enlightening
I had no preconceived ideas when I started this novel - not even an idea of what or who Pachinko is- but soon became engrossed in the characters , their dilemmas and their journeys through life. It was an enlightening look at Korean and Japanese life from between the wars to the 1990s, and the world of pachinko. The narrator was authentic snd kept the characters alive in her clever and sensitive delivery.
Highly recommended.
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- Finewine
- 13-06-23
Mesmerising tale, really enjoyed it
I really got involved with this tale. and hadn't been sure I'd enjoy it. I appreciated the character development and the background that moves between Korea, Japan and latterly the US.l while experiencing the passage of time and the generational changes. The narration was good too!
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- Bookish Attia
- 01-10-22
An intergenerational drama to remember
I absolutely loved this story, I combined listening and reading this story because I wanted to be immersed in the Pachinko world. Most memorable to me, were the sad parts, I could relate to the sacrificial side and watching parents struggle to give their children better lives, but, that coming with at a price.
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- M. E. Collier
- 23-11-22
Recommended!
This book is slightly too long but a good read for those who want to know about the struggles of generations of Koreans, which seem to continue, to a certain extent.
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- Jacqueline I.Foster
- 19-03-24
Characters
Good story with depth. Described people's feelings for each other and for different ethnicities. Hope in the goodness of mankind.
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- MISS I GLORIA
- 13-04-24
Stunning
This is a tremendous work of historical fiction, layered with so many characters and their heart breaking stories.
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- Anonymous
- 17-01-22
Could have been better
I really enjoyed the first portion of this book, it was interesting and once I realised it branched out to other characters from other generations, I enjoyed becoming invested in their stories. But this book sometimes glossed over important character's plots, I actually thought I'd accidentally skipped ahead at one point because the time jump was so long. Also when something dramatic did happen, sometimes I felt I wasn't given time to digest it, again it was just brushed aside.
The book is read well, but I don't think Hiroto is suited to this book in particular, but that's because the recording quality made it difficult for me to understand what was being said, and the gentleness of her voice was a bad contrast when there were quite graphic sex scenes. Some of them were okay, most of them were unnecessary. You'd be in a normal scene and then suddenly there would be graphic descriptions of people's bodies. It was really jarring.
It took me a year to finish this book. I'm glad I did, and I enjoyed some of it, but I couldn't recommend it to anyone.
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6 people found this helpful