"Come. I want to show you something. I learned it from the missionary. We haven’t seen him in a while, yes?…I retrieve my teacup where there is a little honey left, and I walk toward the perimeter of the woods and hold it up. I hear her coming up behind me, the slow rustle of her skirt in the grass, but I don’t turn.
A few minutes later, a bee appears, hovering, circling, then dips into the cup. Then it flies away into the woods. I follow it. She follows me. When I can’t see it anymore or hear it anymore, I stand still and hold up the cup and wait for the bee to come back. Which it does. So we move on, and as we head farther into the woods, I tell the daughter that it is a trick I learned from the missionary. We’re creating a trail.
“To the hive,” I say. “And the honey.”"

In The Hive and the Honey Paul Yoon returns to areas that readers of his earlier work will recognize. This is his third story collection, following Once the Shore (2009) and The Mountain (2017). He has published two novels as well, Snow Hunters (2013) and Run Me To Earth (2020). He treats often in themes of Korean diaspora, losing a sense of home, trying to build new families and communities, feeling alone, often being alone, the impact of history on one’s lived experience, and the impacts of war. That holds here.

"I can’t speak to a unifying Korean identity, but I think, growing up, because I had very little access to an extended family, I was often searching for my own version of that. And I think all my characters are searching for their own version of family. They’re quite literally and figuratively orphans. And they want to rebuild. They want to find a home in all sense of that word." - from the Pen-Ten Interview

There are seven stories in the collection, ranging from 17th century Japan to 20th century New York. The age of the primary characters covers a wide range. One lead is 16, others are in their 20s, returning from war or prison, or still in uniform. There is a couple in their forties and we see one life across decades.

A persistent challenge is to make a home. In Bosun, Bo tries to find a home and family in a small upstate NY town. In At The Post Station, Two samurai must repatriate a 12yo Korean boy to officials from his country. Toshio, the samurai who has been raising his young charge for many years, must face this direct loss of family. The boy must face introduction to an entirely alien culture. Cromer offers a middle-aged London shop-keeper couple, both children of North Korean refugees, who had opted to never have children of their own. But when a 12 yo apparently- battered runaway boy turns up in their shop, many miles from home, it makes them face the insular, child-free lives they had chosen, the community they had not built, the family they had not made. In The Valley of the Moon a man returns from a settlement to his isolated family farm after The Korean War. It is a moonscape, littered with bones and craters. He slowly but steadily brings the farm back. He even takes in two orphans to make a proto-family, but the damage from the war, and from an act he commits before the kids arrived, haunts him for the rest of his life.

Biological families here are all dispersed, or worse. Characters are often stuck on their own. Relations in other places are unreachable, unresponsive, or dead. Some of the impetus for the collection was Yoon’s own familial diaspora.

My grandfather was a Korean War refugee who eventually, after the war, settled in a house in the mountains in South Korea. Where he lived wasn’t nearly as isolated as the setting of “Valley of the Moon,” but my memory of him was that he was—or had become after the war—a bit of a loner, someone who kept to himself, and so I think (a) the character of Tongsu and where he returns to was always linked from the start, and (b) that initial push forward into this story stemmed from wanting to create and capture, perhaps, some corner of family history that felt, and still feels, really distant to me—to engage with that distance, creatively, and to engage with him and with so many others of that generation who had to flee their homes and do anything they could to survive during those horrific years." - from the New Yorker interview

Yoon’s characters also travel far afield. Bosun came to the USA at 18. In Komarov, a Korean cleaning woman is living in Spain. At the Post Station features a boy who was held prisoner by Japan for his entire life and will now be faced with living in an alien culture in Korea. In Cromer, the parents of the couple living in London all escaped from North Korea, and a young Korean boy flees apparent physical abuse. In The Hive and the Honey, the community over which the young soldier watches is comprised of Koreans who had left Korea and were establishing a small community in eastern Russia. In Person of Korea, the lead’s father had taken work far from home and had become unreachable. Families that remain (the survivors) are severely depleted, family trees having been pruned to stumps or worse by war and dispersion. Holding on even to images of one’s past can become a challenge.

"Bo thought he would eventually miss Queens or perhaps even South Korea, where he had spent the first eighteen years of his life, but as the months went on, they were like the faces he tried to recall: far away, as though the places he’d once lived had been homes to someone else."

But for all the travails, the challenges, there is an intrepid spirit at work that pushes them onward. How easy would it have been for the farmer to simply walk away from his devastated fields? For the convict to have given up hope?

The use of imagery is exquisite, illuminating themes, showing how the past impacts, intercedes in, and informs the present.

"Every night, the moon rose from here, and fell, and shattered. And then built itself back up again."

This certainly stands in well for the challenge of all these characters, forced as they are to reconstruct lives after the world has caused them so much disruption. The quote at the top of this review offers another wonderful image. Luring bees with honey then following them back to their nest, taking the steps one can take, however many may be needed, to reach your goal, whether the location of a hive, a home, or something else. A tree grows through the skull of a corpse, offering a (perhaps grim) reminder that life continues, creating a future by feeding on the past.

These are very moving tales, as rich with hope, tenacity, and sweetness as they are with loss, disappointment, and sadness, personal tales told against a backdrop of a nation’s history. The Hive and the Honey is an outstanding literary short-story collection, well deserving of all the award buzz it has been receiving. What could be sweeter?

"economic reasons.”During the pandemic, Yoon says, “we were all scattered. I was separated from friends and to cope I imagined a kind of map. We were all in different places, but we were all part of one world. That got me thinking about the family tree, thinking of that as a map as well. This was the seed of the collection: the movement of a country and its people.”"- from the Louisa Ermelino PW interview


THE STORIES

Bosun - a Korean man, just released from an upstate New York prison, tris to make a life for himself in a small community nearby.

Komarov - A refugee from North Korea is working as a cleaner in Spain when she is approached by Korean agents to spy on a Russian boxer they believe to be her son.

At the Post Station - Two 17th C. samurai accompany a Korean boy, who had been held hostage all his life, to Korean officials who will take him home.

Cromer - The children of escaped North Koreans, a middle-aged couple in London consider their life choices when a 12yo runaway boy happens into their convenience store.

The Hive and the Honey - A young Russian soldier is charged with overseeing a Korean settlement in remote eastern Russia. Things get out of hand when there is a killing, then another.

Person of Korea - When the uncle with whom he had been living dies, a 16yo boy travels to find his father, a security guard on an island off the east coast of Russia.

Valley of the Moon – two years after the Korean War a man returns home to a devastated, vacated farm, and tries to bring it back to life. He takes in two orphans and has a difficult, life-changing encounter with someone looking to cross the border.

Review posted - 02/09/24

Publication date – 10/10/23


I received an ARE of The Hive and the Honey from Simon & Schuster in return for a fair review. Thanks, folks, and thanks to NetGalley for facilitating.

Can't believe I waited to read this for a couple of months - a gem, a lovely Christmas Eve afternoon read as I anticipated the craziness of the evening and holiday.

4+

The Hive and the Honey by Paul Yoon is a brilliantly penned collection of seven stories set across varying time periods and continents exploring the experiences of the Korean diaspora, touching upon themes of identity, displacement, the migrant experience, loss and regret.

In Bosun, we follow a South Korean immigrant who, after a short stint in jail, begins working in a casino in Canada. (4/5) Komarov(5/5) revolves around a North Korean defector, a resident of Barcelona who travels to a small hill town on the Costa Brava to meet a Russian boxer who might be the son she left behind. Set in the Edo period, At The Post Station(4.5/5) follows a samurai who is tasked with escorting an orphan boy to his own people. We meet a Korean couple, both children of North Koreans who settled in London, whose chance meeting with a young Korean boy leaves an indelible imprint on their lives in Cromer(3.5/5) Set in 1881, The Hive And The Honey(5/5), a young man soldier posted at a Korean settlement in Russia, chronicles a bizarre incident in a letter to his uncle. In Person Of Korea (4/5), we meet a Korean teenager who travels to e remote Russian island from his home in East Russia after the death of his uncle to find his father whom he has not seen for over five years and who works as a prison guard. After two years in a refuge settlement, a man returns to his native village to lead a reclusive life until two orphaned children join him, unaware of his violent streak in Valley Of The Moon.(4/5)

Sparse prose, compelling characters, and varying themes make for a powerful and thought-provoking mix of stories. Each of these was impactful and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this collection. This is my first time reading Paul Yoon and I can’t wait to explore more of his work.

Many thanks to Simon Element and NetGalley for the digital review copy. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Yoon is an author I'd heard of but hadn't read before, and I was so psyched to see this as an available book. His writing is so heart-wrenching, smart, and atmospheric. I'm not a huge short story reader, but I found myself so engaged in this book. I can't wait to read what he writes next.

Special thanks to NetGalley and S&S Publishing

I really enjoyed these stories. I love short stories, if you read my reviews you KNOW I love short stories.

These stories are about Korean people experiencing diaspora and I thought the stories were really enjoyable. I learned a lot. 4 stars

The Hive and the Honey were wonderful stories. I haven't read Yoon yet but I will again. I liked the relation to Korea as well as its timeline being over centuries.

s with any short story collection, some stories were more interesting than others. I liked that they all had a connection to Korea but were set in different places and time periods. The first story was my favorite which is not the best way to start a short story collection (but it did keep me reading and kept me hopeful for something even better.)

Oscillating between hopeful and devastating, gritty and tender, this seven story collection spans both centuries and continents in a taut 160 pages. In each, Yoon endows his characters with singular yet relatable desires to offer nuanced exploration of identity and purpose. This is one of my favorite story collections of the year!

𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄: 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙃𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙃𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙮, 𝙋𝙖𝙪𝙡 𝙔𝙤𝙤𝙣⁣
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I can’t resist a reading experience that introduces me to a time or aspects of a culture that expand my understanding. I had high hopes for The Hive and the Honey, and it did not disappoint. Paul Yoon’s new release is a brilliant collection of seven memorable stories exploring 400 years of the Korean diaspora. The collection chronicles themes of displacement, home, identity, and belonging, as well as the clash of cultures across borders and centuries. I felt compassion for the humanity of these characters and wanted to know them more deeply. At times, I found myself pausing to research the maps and the evolving history of Korea. I look forward to reading more of Yoon’s oeuvre.⁣
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I highly recommend reading The Hive and the Honey if you favor subtle character sketches that will broaden your understanding of the unique experiences of the Korean diaspora.⁣
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My sincerest thanks to @ _SimonElement and @NetGalley for the privilege of reading this digital ARC.⁣
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Now Available! ⁣
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#TheHiveAndTheHoney⁣
#PaulYoon⁣
#SimonElement⁣
#NetGalley⁣
#storycollection⁣
#koreandiaspora⁣
#displacement⁣
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In his new short story collect The Hive and The Honey, Paul Yoon writes seven stories of displacement, loss and loneliness. The stories in this collection range in time and location though each feels connected as they consider the cost of war and occupation on the Korean diaspora. I especially enjoyed the stories At the Post Station, Cromer, and Komarov. Each of these three stories limits its scope which which made them feel more focused and effective for me as a reader. That said, each of the stories in this collection gifts readers with characters and turns worth spending time thinking about.

I love Yoon's work, and these short stories are no exception. Not a bad one in the bunch and they cover so many complexities of the human experience.

I like Paul Yoon's work. And I prefer the longer form of a novel in general and for his writing.

This collection of 7 short stories is good and it's certainly unique. Each story depicts a Korean in diaspora as well as across time. I liked "Komarov" and "The Hive and the Honey" the most in this set. Unlike reviews where I advise against reading each story sequentially, I think you can readily distinguish each story here as each is significantly different.

Yoon's writing style and tone possess an understated quality. It's consistent throughout this book. One could describe it as gentle or calm. While reading this title, I thought often of Craft in the Real World: Rethinking Fiction Writing and Workshopping and particularly how the climax in Asian stories is arrived at differently from Western ones.

Thanks to Simon Element for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What an evocative collection of stories! Yoon has done some incredible writing in this collection, which introduces us to people from the North Korean diaspora who have found themselves in many different countries and situations.

On the surface, the stories in this collection have little in common other than that the characters all have a tie to Korea, and they are all brilliantly written. Also, they all had an undercurrent of sadness and longing. I found it interesting and also sad to see the scattering of this particular diaspora and how different the stories of each person in this book were from each other.

Trauma and its effects are also one of the central themes of this collection, though it’s not really addressed directly in most of the stories, There are subtle references to the trauma and hardship that the characters and in some cases, their parents, endured either before leaving or in their journeys as displaced people.

Some other themes addressed here are identity, displacement and the idea of home, found family, and grief and loss. These stories made me feel a lot of things and really stuck with me. I would absolutely recommend this book.

A pretty decent collection of stories. Noticed that in most of the stories someone is trying to cross something. A body of water, land, each other. Not sure if that was intentional or not. I think the layout could have worked better with some stories moved around but overall an ok read.

Seven stories set over centuries and ranging across continents that explore Korean displacement, shared history, identity, alienation, and the effects of war. A South Korean immigrant who spends 12 years in NYC ends up in an upstate prison, a 17th century Japanese samurai returns a Korean orphan to one of his countryman, a Korean couple, their fathers North Korean defectors, run a small shop in London, a young Russian is sent to police a remote Korean outpost in Russia, a solider returns to his family's abandoned farm in the Korean countryside after the Korean War, a Korean woman, a cleaner, now living in Spain agrees to wear a wire for her meeting with a young Russian boxer, in Spain for a bout, a young Korean goes in search of his prison guard father. Lean and spare, the historical stories apparently hewing close to truth, it's a fascinating collection, mingling the extraordinary and the ghostly with the ordinary, the natural world often at play, the prose striking in its simplicity.

Thanks to Simon & Schuster/Marysue Rucci Books and Netgalley for the ARC.

Paul Yoon has become one of my favorite authors to seek out. His writing while poetic and haunting, carries weight and even his cruelties aren't gratuitous. This is the third book of his that I've read, and I'm always surprised at his choices. Here there are seven stories in which he continues exploring underlying themes of diaspora and trauma, misunderstandings fostered by cultural differences, attempts at blending in. As I've made clear many times before, a well written collection of stories can be more challenging than a novel of equal length since it requires more work, but in this case, each story is worth the effort. If I were to single out just one, I believe it would be Cromer, but this is that rare instance when each story is a winner.

This short story collection is just average. I love this genre of fiction, but this collection was just so-so for me. A lot of the stories are similar in tone and nature. Some of the stories are heartbreaking and very realistic. I like this book but I don't think it's the best collection of stories I've ever heard.

A strong set of compelling stories. There's a nice variety, and though I liked some more than others, they all have good qualities. Recommended.

Thanks very much for the free copy for review!!

A nice collection of short stories about family and fitting in. See my full GoodReads Review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5728744240

[arc review! thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review]

“the hive and the honey” is a collection of seven short stories all following diasporic communities with a particular focus on japanese and korean individuals all over the world, and shares the complexities of the lives of these individuals impacted by war, displacement, and trauma.

this was such an amazing collection of short stories—possibly the best i’ve read to date. while in other short story collections i often have ones i love and ones i don’t, but there genuinely wasn’t a single story here that i wouldn’t have rated at least 4 stars individually. there was so much humanity throughout this novel, with themes of identity, grief, loss, family, war, love, and so many more weaved throughout. the prose, as well, was fantastic. it was captivating. in all honesty, i’m not one to spend too much time on detailed descriptions of landscapes and scenery or anything, but yoon’s writing had me holding on to and spending time with every word.

if i were to pick out of the stories, my favorites would definitely be bosun, komarov, and person of korea; but literally *all* of them were phenomenal. i highly recommend this collection, and i will definitely be seeking out more of paul yoon’s work in the future!