Author(s): Mirinae Lee

Adult Fiction | Women's Prize 2024 Longlist

Slave. Escape-Artist. Murderer. Terrorist. Spy. Lover. Mother. Trickster.

Ms Mook made you want to listen to her, but I wasn't sure what to believe. She said she would turn 'one hundred the day after tomorrow', yet she looked at most eighty-seven.

She said she'd been a slave, a spy, a murderer and more, but were these just the fantasies of an old woman, eager to fill her obituary with colourful stories?

This wildly original and vibrant novel tells stories of captivity, friendship, assumed identities and spying. Moving from a nursing home in contemporary South Korea to WWII Indonesia, Seoul in the Korean war and cold-war North Korea, the threads of these tales are slowly entwined until they reveal one bigger story: that of the turbulent recent history of Korea as experienced by one remarkable - but unreliable - woman.

As playful and thought-provoking as it is compelling, as brutal and harrowing as it is achingly poignant and tender, this is a novel about love and war, deceit and betrayal, about identity, storytelling and the trickery required for survival.