Joining the acclaimed ranks of Pachinko and A Woman is No Man, a riveting and genre-bending debut of love and survival, set in the demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea. Life near the North Korean border is a zero-sum game, an ongoing battle in which you either win or you lose. This dangerous, shadowed netherworld is home to an unforgettable woman known only as the “trickster.” Inspired by the story of Lee’s great aunt, one of the oldest women to escape alone from North Korea, 8 Lives of a Century Old Trickster consists of eight dark and spellbinding chapters that follow this remarkable character and her family as they struggle to survive during the most turbulent times of modern Korean history. Mirinae Lee’s trickster is a shapeshifter—throughout the course of these interconnected chapters she is a slave, an escape artist, a murderer, a terrorist, a spy, a lover, and a mother—a woman who must often choose the unthinkable to survive war and conquest in Korea. Her story is a beguiling, complex tale of love and survival that will keep you riveted—and speculating—until the very end thanks to Lee’s brilliant talent for sleight of hand. A fascinating look at survival, trauma, and family, 8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster is an incredible literary debut from a bright new talent.
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.
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