Bloomsbury to Publish The Calligrapher’s Daughter by Eugenia Kim
‘A beautiful, deliberate and satisfying story spanning thirty years of Korean history’ Publishers’ Weekly
‘A wonderfully nuanced historical portrait’, Anita Sethi, Independent
Najin Han, the privileged daughter of a calligrapher, longs to choose her own destiny. Smart and headstrong, she is encouraged by her mother-but her stern father is determined to maintain tradition, especially as the Japanese steadily gain control of his beloved country.
When he seeks to marry fourteen-year-old Najin into an aristocratic family, her mother defies generations of obedient wives and instead sends her daughter to serve in the king’s court as a companion to a young princess. But the king is soon assassinated, and the centuries-old dynastic culture comes to its end.
In the shadow of the dying monarchy, Najin begins a journey through increasing oppression that will change her world forever. As she desperately seeks to continue her education, will the unexpected love she finds along the way be enough to sustain her through the violence and subjugation her country continues to face? Spanning thirty years, The Calligapher’s Daughter is an exquisite novel about a country torn between ancient customs and modern possibilities, a family ultimately united by love and a
woman who never gives up her search for freedom.
Picture Credit: Bloomsbury
- The Calligrapher’s Daughter illuminates Korean history in a way that has not been done before. No single fictional work exists about that time written from a woman’s perspective
- For fans of Amy Tan and Jung Chang
- In November 2018, Bloomsbury to publish Eugenia Kim’s new novel, The Kinship of Secrets
- In the US, it was the winner of the 2009 Borders Original Voices Award and shortlisted for the 2010 Dayton Literary Peace Prize in Fiction, and it was a Best Historical Novel of 2009 in the Washington Post, a Vogue.com Summer
- Best Beach Reads Pick and a Publisher’s Weekly First Fiction Pick
Reviews
“A beautiful, deliberate and satisfying story spanning thirty years of Korean history”- Publishers’ Weekly, Starred Review
“Kim weaves a wonderfully nuanced historical portrait, rich in detail and resonant with meaning and wisdom”- Independent, Anita Sethi
Author Biography: Eugenia Kim’s is Bennington College MFA graduate and teaches at Fairfield University’s MFA Creative Writing Program. She lives in Washington, DC. Her new novel, The Kinship of Secrets, is due for publication in November 2018.