Waiting

Keum Suk Gendry-Kim's mother revealed a family secret: she had been separated from her sister during the Korean War. This inspired Gendry-Kim to begin interviewing her and other Koreans separated by the war, which fueled a graphic novel. The Waiting is the fictional story of Gwija, told by her novelist daughter, Jina, who was separated from her husband and son while fleeing south. Seventy years have passed, and Jina can't stop thinking about the promise she made to help find her brother.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 248 pages
Publication date: 14 September 2021
Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly

Keum Suk Gendry-Kim's mother revealed a family secret: she had been separated from her sister during the Korean War. The peninsula was split across the 38th parallel, dividing one country into two. As many fled violence in the north, not everyone was able to make it south. Gendry-Kim's mother's story inspired her to begin interviewing her and other Koreans separated by the war, which fueled a deeply resonant graphic novel.

The Waiting is the fictional story of Gwija, told by her novelist daughter, Jina. When Gwija was seventeen years old, after hearing that the Japanese were seizing unmarried girls, her family married her in a hurry to a man she didn't know. Japan fell, Korea gained its independence, and the couple started a family. But peace didn't come. The young family of four fled south. On the road, while breastfeeding and changing her daughter, Gwija was separated from her husband and son.

Then seventy years passed. Seventy years of waiting. Gwija is now an elderly woman, and Jina can't stop thinking about the promise she made to help find her brother.

Expertly translated from the Korean by the award-winning translator Janet Hong, The Waiting is the devastating follow-up to Gendry-Kim's Grass, which appeared on best-of-the-year lists from The New York Times, The Guardian, Library Journal, and more.

Weight: 578g
Dimension: 152 x 212 x 24 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781770464575