Discover Honey in the Wound: A Spellbinding Story of Korean Women Across Generations
- Allen & Unwin
- 13 hours ago
- 3 min read
Learn more about the lyrical and suspenseful debut novel Honey in the Wound by Jiyoung Han.
Honey in the Wound is a lyrical debut spanning ninety years of one extraordinary Korean family’s life under Japanese imperialism. A sister returns as a tiger, a mother’s voice compels the truth, and a granddaughter reads secrets in dreams. At its heart is Young-Ja, whose magical gift of infusing emotion into her cooking becomes a force for survival amid loss, love, and the brutality of war.
Below, we’re thrilled to share a personal letter from the author, followed by a video message, offering a glimpse into the inspiration, history, and heart behind this unforgettable story.
Dear Reader,
I’ve never really considered myself a writer. Before this novel, the last time I had written
fiction was nearly two decades ago, in those dreamy attempts at self-expression familiar to
any bookish teen. I was just as surprised as everyone else in my life when one moment of
fury pushed these words out of me onto the pages before you.
This book was born in the summer of 2023 when I came across an article reporting that
there were only nine surviving comfort women left in Korea, all in their nineties. “Comfort
women” is the euphemistic term for the hundreds of thousands of girls and women forced
into sexual slavery by the Japanese military in the 1930s and 1940s. The chilling realization
that I could count the number of Korean survivors on my fingers—as well as the likelihood
they would pass away without even a sincere apology from the Japanese government—
struck me with breath-stealing despair. I felt enraged with powerlessness, uncertain if I
could do anything to help rectify these injustices. I am neither a historian nor a journalist. I
do not command any wide-reaching platform.
But like you, dear reader, I love stories. I thought of the countless times fiction introduced
me to pockets of history I did not learn in school. Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko taught me about
the experience of Zainichi Koreans in Japan. Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children taught
me about Indian independence from British rule. Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing taught me about
the Ashanti Uprising and the bloody legacies of the Gold Coast. Their example made me
think about storytelling as an apt means for channeling my drive to inform and understand.
And so this novel came to be. Alongside an important history, I’ve also imbued these pages
with much of what I enjoy as a reader: the perspectives of everyday people, the metaphor amplifying currents of magical realism, the power of underestimated women.
In this journey I have learned that although we may forget our histories, we cannot escape
them. My parents were able to meet and prosper in Seoul because one’s father had left
Pyongyang before imperial lines split families into North and South, and because the other’s
father had survived forced conscription into the Japanese military. In turn, I was able to
immigrate to the United States because my mother sought a better life for us than what she
had endured under multiple autocratic rulers. But growing up in the American Midwest,
I did not learn about the historical events that shaped my own existence until I entered
college.
I am still learning. Perhaps this story can help others with their own learning. Thank you for
spending time with these pages, with these characters who I hope can live on in the light of
our collective memories.
With gratitude,
Jiyoung Han
@han_g0
Honey in the Wound by Jiyoung Han releases 28 April.
Honey in the Wound
by Jiyoung Han
Spanning ninety years as one family of gifted Korean women's lives are upended under Japanese imperialism, Honey in the Wound is a powerful and sweeping debut novel for fans of Pachinko and Demon Copperhead.
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