A "magnificent" (Ha Jin) and "magical" (Marie Myung-Ok Lee) fever
dream of a novel that interweaves the coming-of-age of a 1970s
Korean-American boy grappling with his identity and the impact of
intergenerational trauma
"A fascinating story of a young mixed-race man caught between two
cultures, not knowing what to keep and what to leave behind."--James
McBride, author of The Color of Water
Growing up outside a US military base in South Korea in the aftermath of
the Vietnam War, Insu--the son of a Korean mother and a German father
enlisted in the US Army--spends his days with his "half and half"
friends skipping school, selling scavenged Western goods on the black
market, watching Hollywood movies, and testing the boundaries between
childhood and adulthood. When he hears a legend that water collected in
a human skull will cure any sickness, he vows to dig up a skull in order
to heal his ailing Big Uncle, a geomancer who has been exiled by the
family to a mountain cave to die.
Insu's quest takes him and his friends on a sprawling, wild journey into
some of South Korea's darkest corners, opening them up to a fantastical
world beyond their grasp. Meanwhile, Big Uncle has embraced his solitude
and fate, trusting in otherworldly forces Insu cannot access. As he
recalls his wartime experiences of betrayal and lost love, Big Uncle
attempts to teach his nephew that life is not limited to what we can
see--or think we know.
Largely autobiographical and sparkling with magical realism, Skull
Water is the story of a boy coming into his own--and the ways the past
haunts the present in a country on the cusp of modernity struggling to
confront its troubled history. As Insu seeks the wisdom of his
ancestors, what he learns, he hopes, will save not just his uncle but
himself.
