Pachinko
by Min Jin Lee
★ Top 25 book of 2017 · #18 on Best Books of 2017
Beginning in early 1900s Korea, Sunja rejects a wealthy married lover and accepts a minister's proposal, moving to Japan. Her choice launches a generational saga of love, sacrifice, ambition and loyalty.
Best for: Readers who enjoy sweeping multigenerational family sagas with strong, complex characters
Pachinko is #18 on BookWard's Best Books of 2017, out of 73 2017 books that cleared our data bar.
What Pachinko is about
Pachinko follows one Korean family across much of the twentieth century, beginning in 1883 in the fishing village of Yeongdo. Hoonie, born with a cleft lip and a club foot, marries Yangjin, and in the mid-1910s they have a daughter, Sunja. At sixteen, Sunja becomes pregnant by a wealthy fishbroker, only to learn he is already married. She refuses to become his mistress and instead marries a sickly Christian minister, who takes her to Osaka to live with his brother and sister-in-law.
There she discovers how Koreans are treated in Japan: crowded into a small ghetto and offered only the lowest jobs. From that point the novel traces what racism and discrimination ask of a family, and what each generation gives up to keep it together. The tone is sweeping but sober, and always empathetic. It will appeal to readers who enjoy long family sagas, historical fiction, and stories about immigration and belonging.
Pachinko on the Best Books of 2017
Pachinko came out in 2017. Of the 73 books first published in 2017 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #18 on our Best Books of 2017 list.
Why it made the list: 486 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4 out of 5 (25 ratings); 29 are reading it right now. The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 2017 list
- If We Were Villains M. L. Rio, #16
- Make Your Bed William H. McRaven, #17
- Behave Robert M. Sapolsky, #19
- Origin Dan Brown, #20
See all Best Books of 2017 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 2016 Best Books of 2018.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 409 want to read it, 29 are reading it now and 48 have read it, according to Open Library.
- Ratings: 4 out of 5 from 25 Open Library ratings.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 75 | 55% |
| Reader love | 48 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 85 | 20% |
Questions about Pachinko
When was Pachinko published?
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee was first published in 2017.
Was Pachinko one of the best books of 2017?
Pachinko is #18 on BookWard's Best Books of 2017, out of 73 2017 books that cleared our data bar. 486 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4 out of 5 (25 ratings); 29 are reading it right now.
Why is Pachinko on the Best Books of 2017 list?
486 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4 out of 5 (25 ratings); 29 are reading it right now.
More of the best books of 2017
- The Hate U Give Angie Thomas, #1
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo Taylor Jenkins Reid, #2
- A Court of Wings and Ruin Sarah J. Maas, #3
- One of Us Is Lying Karen M. McManus, #4
- The Dark Prophecy Rick Riordan, #5
- Why We Sleep Matthew P. Walker, #6
See the full Best Books of 2017, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
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