This was one of my most anticipated books of 2025. And it did not disappoint! I loved this from beginning to end. I thought it was a great addition to my summer reading so far.

Susan Choi's latest is an epic tale about a multinational family affected by the North Korean mass abductions of South Koreans: More than 84,500 people were kidnapped and brought to the DPRK against their will, both during and after the Korean War, from both South Korea and from abroad. "Flashlight" starts with a young academic disappearing from a beach - only his ten-year-old daughter Louisa is found in a hypothermic state, she barely remembers anything. The story takes us back to the many lives of the man who was born as Seok Kang, the son of Korean immigrants to Japan. There, he was known as Hiroshi to avoid discrimination, and later went as Serk as a student in the US, where he met his American wife - and then we follow his destiny in the present.

His chapters are interwoven with those of other main characters: His wife Anne, who had a wild youth and suffers from multiple sclerosis; Anne's illegitimate son Tobias who survived a brain tumor and now lives like an enigmatic beat poet; Serk's and Anne's daughter Louisa who has a strained relationship with her mother while also resembling her in many ways; plus there are many captivating minor characters that drive the story forward and illustrate historic and societal circumstances, many of them related to the main cast, like the part of Serk's family that willingly left Japan for North Korea in the hopes of fleeing discrimination, as well as Louisa's and Anne's friends and acquaintances through the years. And while Choi planted many obvious puzzle pieces that will with great certainty show up again later, they eventually do form a well thought out image, with a designated place for every bit of information readers can gather along the way.

And yes, the author talks major world politics, wars and the relationship mainly between North and South Korea, Japan, China, and the US, the human cost behind figures and dates and news reports. But it's not a chore to learn here, because the characters are so complex, psychologically plausible and captivating, and the plot takes on speed and turns into a bona fide historical suspense novel. Sure, it's not nearly as aesthetically complex as Trust Exercise, Choi's controversial National Book Award Winner that I loved, but it's an absorbing read that incorporates four generation of a Korean-Japanese-American family with admirable ease.

The novel sometimes made me think of one of my favorite books, The Orphan Master's Son, which Choi does mention in her acknowledgements. And while I did not love Choi's achievement quite as much (Adam Johnson has this wild streak that I admire), this more conventional, sometimes a little too neatly wrapped approach offers great, perceptive writing, messy and thus realistic characters, and a multi-dimensional plot. Prize judges should certainly notice.

Far too long and boring

While out walking with her father, Louisa, aged 10, finds herself alone on the beach, and her father is missing. His body is never found. What happened to him?

Flashlight does have some interesting themes such as being an immigrant outside of the United States. Additionally, this book is a unique mixture of mystery and historical fiction.

In regard to the mystery, what happened to Louisa’s father, the book did a poor job sign posting—for most of the book it felt like we are no closer to discovering answers. This caused the pages to drag; it was such a chore to read this book.

The editor of this book should have suggested cutting anything that doesn’t move the plot forward. For example, there was a completely irrelevant passage about an orange cat. Not that I am against cats. I am against reading a 400+ page book that should have been half its length.

Also, there were some paragraphs and sentences just far too long.

Susan Choi's latest is brilliantly structured (as we've come.to expect from her). While I didn't love this one quite as much as Trust Exercise, Flashlight is a compelling literary read well worth your attention.

This novel offers a beautifully crafted portrait of a fractured family, torn apart by a life-altering event that remains intentionally vague to avoid spoilers. One evening in Japan, Korean-born Serk and his 10-year-old daughter, Louisa, go for a walk along the beach, leaving Anna—his American wife and Louisa’s mother—at home. When neither Serk nor Louisa returns, Anna notifies the authorities. Louisa is eventually discovered, half-conscious and unable to recall what happened. Serk is never found.

The beginning of the book unfolds slowly, as it takes time to explore the histories of both Serk and Anna. We learn about Serk’s early years in Korea and Japan, including his family’s harrowing escape from Korea and eventual return—without him. Anna’s backstory reveals her estrangement from her own family after giving birth to a son outside of marriage. These foundational chapters are rich in detail but may feel leisurely paced.

However, the second half picks up significantly. Serk’s mysterious disappearance becomes the emotional anchor for the rest of the story, impacting not only Anna and Louisa but also Tobias, Anna’s son. As the story accelerates, it becomes increasingly compelling. The characters grow in depth and realism, and the final chapters are especially moving. The narrative is steeped in history and emotional complexity, portraying personal and cultural challenges with care and sensitivity.

This was my first Susan Choi book, and I'm so impressed with her writing. This wasn't what I was expecting, and I was glued to the pages. The characters were so incredibly well written. The detail was flushed out so beautifully that it keeps you engaged from the beginning to the end. This is one of my top reads of the year.

Some ties are forever and the father-daughter relationship in this novel exemplifies that. The father is ethnic Japanese raised in Korea, marrying and living in the United States. His beloved daughter is only 10 when he disappears from a walk on the beach and is presumed drowned. The story follows the daughter’s years from that point, her struggle living with a mother with MS, as a student of mixed parentage, with an ill-fated marriage, and accepting a free-spirit step-brother.

I learned a lot about the relationships between China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, and U.S. The characters appeared realistic with all of their personality quirks and the setting in some parts seemed painfully true. However, the amount of detail the writer included in some parts was distracting to the flow of the narrative.

Thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux Publishing fit the ARC to read and review.

𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐋𝐨𝐮𝐢𝐬𝐚 𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫, 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐨 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐧. 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫, 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐞𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬.

This story morphed into a deeply engaging tale about identity, culture, country, and how events in the world, which are out of our control, be it the disruption of war, politics, or another cataclysmic event can make you an outsider where you land. Integrate in the new country and you may even become suspect with your own people. On a lesser scale, there is a hierarchy within one’s own family, sometimes a bond between two leaves another out. Then there are secrets, or more, sins of omission not for the sake of deception but security. With so little of the full story of our parent’s origins, how are we to understand our own place in the tale?

The story opens at night on a beach in Japan; Louisa is holding her father Serk’s hand (more to make him happy, for she is ten, not a helpless child) and in his other hand Serk holds a flashlight as they walk down the breakwater on slippery granite blocks. He confides in her that he never learned to swim, as she is telling him she hates her swimming lessons at the YMCA that her mother makes her attend. There is a closeness between father and daughter, and we know only that Louisa’s mom is not well, that she stayed behind at the rental, resting. It is a foreshadowing; her father cannot swim. Later, Louisa is found alone unconscious on the shore. Her father presumed dead, surely having slipped and drowned, the currents taking his body (never recovered) away. She is seeing a child psychologist, though she does not want to, under the guise of skipping a grade ahead, speeding into fifth. In truth, this clever girl is damaged by the rupture in her universe, the shock and trauma of her father’s mysterious disappearance and death. What she first believed happened sounded outlandish, a product of shock. Louisa also lies, steals, and claims she does not need friends. In fact, her resentment is disturbing, the venom she has about her mother’s wheelchair and illness belies a very wounded, confused child. Her intelligence, once her “specialness” is a burden; it keeps other children outside her orbit.

In another chapter, a Korean family living in Japan are desperate for reunification with their homeland. But their son, a brilliant student who has grown up and into his Japanese name Hiroshi, does not feel Korean. Not even when Americans, in the name of democratization, allow Koreans to start their own schools does Hiroshi ever want to leave his Japanese education, shocked to learn he is not Japanese, that is family is from Jeju. An outcast in his family for rejecting his true homeland, he holds fiercely to his Japanese identity and the only place he has ever known. He is torn and pulled in two directions, disappointed in either choice. This is an incredible chapter in the novel, of displacement, being trapped between country, identity, loyalty. The writing is masterful. It is the curse of always leaving, unable to take root in one place.

Anne knows all about being a misfit in her own family, with her youthful mistake, which will come into play later in the novel. Never forced out, she chose to sever her ties with her family whom she describes to Serk as “people purely to escape.” Serk has no family, no one in the world but himself until Anne. Soon they are lovers, and become parents to their only child, Louisa. But there are things they keep from each other, facts about their pasts that would explain their defining behaviors. Before the incident, the past is pressing in on both Serk and Anne, a sort of time bomb, but neither can confide their fears in the other. And when Serk disappears, he leaves Anne to raise their child alone, who is so much like her father. In his wake, there are more questions and trauma.

Part Two explains why the family was in Japan, Anne is facing a failing body, an illness as mysterious as her husband. Louisa’s parents each spend time with people they are keeping secret from each other, with her as sole witness. Serk and Anne seem like different versions of themselves in Japan, and Anne is already suffocating in confusion, curling into herself, and feeling even more alien, a true foreigner abroad missing her dad’s adoration. The circumstances of Serk’s disappearance, death, are a puzzle they carry back over the ocean, to America where the mother and daughter must learn how to be a family of two. Of course, Louisa is cold to her mother, mean, but at heart it is fear. Fear of her mother’s frailty, fear of losing her, even if she does not realize it.

My review is just a glimpse of the weight of this novel, the strangers who enter the tale are vital to the turns that fate takes but I do not want to give it away. I was deeply absorbed in this book, and it has stayed in my mind since I read it months ago. Yes, read it! This is a gorgeously painful read by an incredibly gifted writer. Every character is a full creation; they could walk right off the pages. The subject is deep and gives insight into the struggle and reality of displacement as well as the deception and ruin that remain after war. Reading the ending, I had a lump of emotion in my throat, it guts you. My review was long winded, I know. I didn’t do the story justice, but trust me, it is the book of the year!

Publication Date: June 3, 2025

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

If something is not remembered, did it happen?

Louisa is ten years old, the daughter of a Korean man (Serk) and an American woman (Anne) who together have recently moved to Japan. Louisa desperately wants to go for a walk on the beach in their new home; it will be her father, though he doesn't swim, who must take her as her mother's medical condition necessitates her using a wheelchair. Serk finally agrees to take Louisa to the beach as she wishes; by night's end, Louisa will be washed up on the shore in terrible shape with little memory of what has happened. Of Serk there is no trace, and it is presumed that he was washed out to sea and drowned, though for a time Louisa will say he was kidnapped. Serk and Anne were both estranged from their respective families, though after Serk's disappearance Anne and Louisa will move back to the US to live with a relative as they struggle to move on and heal from their traumatic loss. What happened that night on the beach? Why had Serk, an ethnic Korean, grown up in Japan until his family migrated to North Korea, and how had he ended up in the US where he met and married Anne? Was his disappearance a tragic accident, or was there something more sinister at hand?
Flashlight is a sprawling multi-generational saga that toggles between the life journeys of Serk, Anne, and Louisa, as well as that of Tobias, Anne's illegitimate son (whose existence caused the rift between her and her parents). Interwoven with elements of history and regional politics, it is an exploration of the effects of trauma upon relationships and one's sense of identity. Author Susan Choi's talents in writing prose are evident throughout, and each character is carefully drawn and fully realized (though I didn't warm up much to Anne). The family drama at the core of the tale segues into moments of thriller-like suspense as the narrative switches back and forth between the different characters and time periods. The length of the book and its ambitious scope can be a challenge, and at times I found that some paring down might have been in order. Overall, however, I enjoyed the story and especially the bits of history about which I hadn't known much. Readers of Angie Kim, Chang-rae Lee and Helena Kho should give this a try My thanks to NetGalley and Farrar Strauss and Giroux for allowing me access to Flashlight in exchange for my honest review.

“Flashlight” opens in 1978 with 10 year old Louisa and her father, Serk, walking on a beach while Serk commends his ailing wife, Anne, Louisa’s mother, for teaching Louisa to swim, a skill that Serk never learned. The next morning, Louisa is found unconscious, alone on the shore, with no recollection of how she ended up there or how her father disappeared. Serk’s body is never recovered and he is presumed to have drowned. Louisa and Anne depart for Los Angeles where they move in with Anne’s brother and his wife whom Louisa had never even heard of before their arrival. They behaved towards her as all adults did since her father died, “with a combination of hearty attention and squeamish discomfort.” Louisa is defiant and disruptive at school and is required to see a psychologist with whom she spars and shows contempt.

That award winning story, which was published in the New Yorker, serves as the prologue to “Flashlight.” From that opening, “Flashlight” spans multiple continents and more than half a century. The book branches out into different family members’ perspectives and looks into Korean, American and Japanese history. Choi traces each character’s origins through detailed backstory. Serk, formerly Hiroshi and then Seok, was raised by his Korean parents in poverty in Japan. Despite his academic achievements, as an ethnic Korean, Serk was denied entrance to Japan’s top schools. He moves to Tokyo in the “race for second-rate prizes,” attending a technical college. His parents and three younger siblings, beguiled by the propaganda coming from North Korea, depart despite Serk’s concerns: “although Japan denied its resident Koreans access to every kind of privilege that existed — the privileges existed.”

Anne was the last of seven children who was working in a Toledo hardware store when she met Adrian, a man who spoke the “languages of the Holy Land, and had the prophet’s beard and zealot’s eyes, too.” Anne became pregnant and Adrian and his wife adopted the baby, Tobias. Anne was told that she would be “informed of his progress through life.” Disowned by her family shamed by her unwed pregnancy, Anne is hired by a professor at Smith College. It is there that Anne meets Serk Kang who was seeking a doctorate in electrical engineering.

Louisa was born after the Kangs moved to Rolling Prairie where Serk had his first postdoctoral teaching job at the state college. The Kang marriage was volatile and physically abusive — the only thing that Anne and Serk shared was “a belief in their child’s extraordinariness.” When Serk was offered a visiting professorship, he brought Anne and Louisa with him to Japan. Louisa was initially ill at ease but she adapts. In Louisa’s view, it was her white American mother, who rarely left their apartment owing to a mysterious physical ailment, that inhibited Louisa’s life in Japan.

Although “Flashlight” seems to refer to the flashlight that Serk insisted on carrying with him when he walked along the beach, and which was found in the sand next to Louisa following his disappearance, it may refer to the secrets and silences that are not illuminated and that culminate in the family’s dissolution. Serk secretly visits with his sister, the only sibling to remain in Japan, as they discuss their dying father and bringing their family back to Japan. Anne, whose illness has kept her wheelchair bound, secretly meets in her home with Tobias who had been traveling throughout the country. As the years pass, both Anne and Louisa question what transpired at the beach in Japan, although neither is able to share their concerns. Choi expertly wraps up the sprawling narrative with a heartbreaking conclusion. Thank you Farrar Straus and Giroux and Net Galley for an advance copy of this worthy successor to Choi's National Book Award-winning novel “Trust Exercise.”

I love love love this book. It is so beautiful and layered, powerfully engaging the reader in a family mystery that explores the Korean diaspora over generations. The brilliant audiobook narration is from Eunice Wong. Listening to her pronunciations of the Japanese and Korean really enhanced the experience of Susan Choi’s beautiful words. This is a must read and major contender for my book of the year. Thank you @fsgbooks & @macmillan.audio for the gifted copies.

I had no idea after reading the short story that became the prologue of Flashlight where it would lead me, but I was swept across generations and continents and governments into this epic historical family drama that kept me riveted until the very last word.

This epic story spans decades and continents, but it begins with a single image: a father and daughter, holding hands, walking along a beach at night, flashlight in hand. This night ends with just the child, Louisa, nearly drowned on the beach the next morning and her father gone. From here, Choi masterfully unspools the story of this family, revealing all their pain and failed connections. While we get to know these characters intimately, we grieve over their inability to really know each other. One of the things I loved most is the way the opening motifs–the hands, the flashlight, the ocean–recur throughout the book offering depth of meaning and a truly rich reading experience. Readers who enjoyed Asako Serizawa’s Inheritors and Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch, should give this a try.

This was an incredibly good story, though you have to be a really patient reader to appreciate it. I have not read a book by this author previously, the Korean aspect of it is what made me request it and I was very happy to receive it, and I really enjoyed it, but there were portions where I felt the story slowed. The story focuses on a family Serk, the father, Anne, the mother, Louisa, their daughter and Tobias, Anne's son from a previous relation. Serk has lived his life in Japan, his parents are Korean and had fled to Japan after the Korean war, but returned when the promise of a good life was made. Louisa was born in the States, but has lived for a period in Japan when Serk had moved the family there for his work, it was during this time that Serk disappeared and was presumed drowned. Anne is an American, she met and married Serk and lived for many years in the States before he accepted the job in Japan, she returned with Louisa to the States after his disappearance. Tobias is also American, though he travels extensively mostly through Europe and Asia, he does visit Anne and Louisa as well, he's kind of like a hobo, doesn't care about what he looks like or having things, prefers to spend his money on others. The story is told from the perspective of each person at different times, it's not linear, sometimes you go back in time, other times forward, but it was easy to follow once the story got going. Overall a good story and I would recommend. Thanks to #Netgalley and #Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the ARC.

My only firsthand experience of Susan Choi prior to reading Flashlight was Trust Exercise, a book whose scope is very narrow. Flashlight could not be more different. Vast in scope, considering generational trauma, global political, social mores, this is a dark and mysterious story about coming of age, about family, and about our place in the world as individuals.

I tandem read both the physical copy and the audio and I highly recommend the audio version. While the plot was meandering and the book is far from concise, Eunice Wong is the absolute best of the best when it comes to narration and she knocked this one out of the park. Readers who choose the audio version will be shocked to find how long the book is because Wong's narration sucks you in and keeps you going until the very last page.

FLASLIGHT by Susan Choi is one of those books that’s well-written but didn’t fully land for me. Choi’s prose is sharp and often intimate, and I appreciated the emotional complexity she explores: especially around desire, perception, and memory.

That said, I found myself more admiring the craft than feeling pulled into the story. Some sections felt distant or overly cerebral, and I struggled to connect with the characters beyond the surface. It’s a short read that poses interesting questions, but ultimately left me more intrigued by the ideas than invested in the narrative. Thank you to NetGalley and FSG for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book has been my almost constant companion for five days - the longest I’ve spent with a book on my (still relatively new) Kindle. (I looked up the paper book - 400+ pages - and audiobook - 17+ hours - just to put it into perspective.) I can’t think of a way to review this book that makes it sound like I liked it: the characters are well developed but not overly likable (excluding Walt - he’s a gem) and it just has an overall feeling of dreary grayness. Loveless marriages, a drowning, broken families, mysterious illnesses, identity crises…it’s just all so depressing! But I actually did enjoy the time I spent with these characters. It’s like my favorite family dramas with the added complexity of the historic tensions between Korea and Japan. Thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for this ARC.

The family mystery of this story had me absolutely hooked. I loved the writing and the way the story progressed, but these characters are what truly stood out for me while reading.

The story opens with 10-year-old Louisa grappling with the loss of her father, Serk, a Korean man brought up in Japan after WWII. Louisa’s mother, Anne, raises Louisa as a single mother and juggles learning to relate to her firstborn son, Tobias, whom she had before her marriage. The story takes us from Korea to Japan to America and back to Korea, and we hear from the perspectives of Serk, Anne, and Louisa, though primarily from Louisa’s. Choi considers the repercussions of colonization, war, and geopolitical boundaries and how these affect a nuclear family’s life. Although the plot contains welcome movement and travel, I found it difficult to connect with the characters, and perhaps the novel’s length added to this oddity. The texture of the characters’ inner lives never heightened my senses to the level I desired. I rate Flashlight 3.5 stars.

My thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for an ARC. I shared this review on GoodReads on May 30, 2025 (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7529046791).

I had a very hard time with this book at the beginning and honestly thought of dnf'ing, but I'm so glad I didn't!!! After 40% it was so good I couldn't stop reading.
A very raw and enlightening portrayal of family ties that separate and bring closer and political relationships between neighboring countries that ruin lives.

Thank you NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for this ARC.