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OLDER FICTION
Lee, Julie

In the Tunnel

304 pp. | Holiday | May, 2023 | Trade ISBN 9780823450398 $18.99 | Ebook ISBN 9780823455294 $11.99
(2) YA This companion novel to Lee's Brother's Keeper tells the story of Kim Myung-gi and his family from the end of Japan's occupation of Korea through Russia's invasion to the start of the Korean War. The narrative begins harrowingly in 1952 with the war underway and sixteen-year-old Myung-gi, a North Korean soldier, trapped in a collapsed tunnel. Chapters alternate between Myung-gi's desperate­ attempts to escape and flashbacks beginning in 1945 when Myung-gi is nine. (The shifts in time are clearly indicated at the start of each chapter.) When it becomes too dangerous to stay in their village, the family makes plans to flee south to Busan, but communist soldiers abduct Myung-gi's father before they can leave--and Myung-gi blames himself. Their mother decides they will follow through with the plan to escape; their journey is fraught with peril. Ultimately, Myung-gi is rescued from the tunnel; an epilogue told from Myung-gi's father’s point of view, thirty-five years after the war, encapsulates­ the scope of loss for this family. Lee's vivid, visceral writing provides readers with an unflinching story of war and survival as well as an intimate look at everyday life for Koreans caught up in geo-political forces over which they have no control. Few books for young readers grapple with the Korean War from this perspective; it's an important story to tell, but the bleakness and emphasis on trauma makes for a dark and intense read.
Reviewer: Kitty Flynn | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2023

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