The Surrendered

Description

June Han has forged a life thousands of miles from her birthplace: she has built a business in New York, survived a husband, borne a child. But her past holds more secrets than she has ever been able to tell, and thirty years after her escape from war-ravaged Korea, the time has come for her to confront them. Hector Brennan, fighter, drinker and 'failure grand and total', is the man who long ago saved June's life. And between them lies the story of the beautiful, damaged Sylvie Tanner, whose elusive love they both once sought. On a journey that takes them from the scorched hillsides and abandoned rice paddies of a shattered Korea to a blood-soaked century-old Italian battlefield, together June and Hector go in search of their past, bound together by a legacy of shocking acts of violence and love.

Compelling, suspenseful and unforgettable, The Surrendered is a stunning epic of war, redemption and human longing. It is a masterpiece.

Author description

Chang-Rae Lee is the author of the bestselling novel Native Speaker, winner of the Hemingway Foundation/Pen award. He teaches at Princeton University.