8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster

Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2024

By: Mirinae Lee

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Paperback | 9 May 2023 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Paperback
304 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
2.7 x 15.4 x 23.4

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'Captivating' New York Times

'Dazzling' Financial Times
'A cracking read' Historical Novel Society
SLAVE. ESCAPE-ARTIST. MURDERER. TERRORIST. SPY. LOVER. MOTHER. TRICKSTER.

At the Golden Sunset retirement home, it is not unusual for residents to invent stories. So when elderly Ms Mook first begins to unspool her memories, the obituarist listening to her is sceptical. Stories of captivity, friendship, murder, assumed identities and spying. A narrative that jumps from WWII Indonesia to Busan during the Korean war; from cold-war Pyongyang to a Protestant church in China. The adventures are so colourful and various, at times so unbelievable. Surely they can't all belong to the same woman. Can they?

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.

Industry Reviews

Cross-dressing, spying, identity theft, motherhood and murder ... A dazzling feat of narrative sophistication and historical invention - Financial Times

A gripping story set against the backdrop of Korea's turbulent history ... brilliant and original - Washington Post

Mesmerising, heartbreaking ... a wild ride of a novel

Soaring, fierce, bold and intoxicating

A dazzling, visceral read. Intricately woven and playful, the prose has a brutal beating energy. At its heart is the fascinating Ms Mook, and the kaleidoscope of her life is a captivating history of Korea, a country torn apart

Interrogates love, identity, betrayal, and everything it takes for one shape-shifting "trickster" to survive. Lee writes with sharp, ferocious energy, and I was riveted from the first page.

Unflinching and tender, philosophical and mischievous, this playful novel conveys a sense of Korea's turbulent twentieth century through a charming, compelling protagonist who is not always a reliable narrator but who tells the truths that matter. I was captivated by Lee's masterful storytelling

Fantastically original doesn't begin to describe this exhilarating, globe-spanning, decade-hopping masterpiece. Lee has achieved the impossible - from a fractured century of agonies and betrayals, she has woven a novel of immense beauty and regeneration

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