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The Apology

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The Apology

By: Jimin Han
Narrated by: Kathleen Kim
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About this listen

This “sweeping intergenerational saga" tells the story of a pampered and defiant South Korean matriarch thrust into the afterlife from which she seeks a second chance to make amends (Kirstin Chen)—and fights off a tragic curse that could devastate generations to come.

In South Korea, a 105-year-old woman receives a letter. Ten days later, she has been thrust into the afterlife, fighting to head off a curse that will otherwise devastate generations to come.

Hak Jeonga has always shouldered the burden of upholding the family name. When she sent her daughter-in-law to America to cover up an illegitimate birth, she was simply doing what was needed to preserve the reputations of her loved ones. How could she have known that decades later, this decision would return to haunt her—threatening to tear apart her bond with her beloved son, her relationship with her infuriatingly insolent sisters, and the future of the family she has worked so hard to protect?

Part ghost story and part family epic, The Apology is an incisive tale of sisterhood and diaspora, reaching back to the days of Japanese colonialism and the Korean War, and told through the singular voice of a defiant, funny, and unforgettable centenarian.

Lit Hub's Most Anticipated Books of 2023 • Shondaland's The Best Books to Read for Summer 2023 • San Francisco Chronicle's 17 Books We Can't Wait to Read This Summer • Publishers Weekly's Fall 2023 Adult Announcements: Literary Fiction • Goodreads's 88 Upcoming Books the Goodreads Editors Can't Wait to Read • Los Angeles Times's 10 Books to Add to Your Reading List in August • Apple Books's Best Books of August

©2023 Jimin Han (P)2023 Little, Brown & Company
Fantasy Ghosts Magical Realism United States Haunted Fiction Scary

Critic Reviews

"What does it mean to be the keeper of the stories? What does it mean to be left behind? The Apology shows Jimin Han's talents as a skillful storyteller, interweaving questions of sisterhood and separation, generational secrets and ancestral love, through a singular and unforgettable centenarian voice."—Lisa Ko, author of The Leavers

“Like magic, this book is at once a page-turning mystery, a supernatural odyssey, a family saga, and a Korean melodrama. Count me forever among Han’s audience.”—Matthew Salesses, author of The Sense of Wonder and Craft in the Real World

"What a superb story this is, unweaving the tangle of family history—and the wrongheaded honor that has walled out love—as this remarkable novel moves from the unguessable to the expansively imagined. It’s a maze of leaps—across boundaries beyond the known—as one woman grapples with the impossible question of how wrongs can be righted. A memorable and wonderfully original book."—Joan Silber, author of Secrets of Happiness

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