Flashlight (2025 Kirkus Prize Finalist)

★2025年 Kirkus Prize 決選名單。

故事始於1978年的日本，十歲的女孩 Louisa 和她的父親 Serk 在海邊散步，隔天，Louisa 在海灘上被發現，幾乎喪命，而她的父親卻離奇失蹤了。

故事圍繞著這場失蹤事件展開，追溯這個破碎家庭的過去與未來：

•Louisa：在父親失蹤後，由母親 Anne 獨自撫養長大。她聰明而叛逆，童年的創傷使她成為一個性格尖銳、難以親近的成年人。

•Anne：Louisa 的美國母親，在丈夫消失後，獨自面對生活的挑戰與悲傷，並與女兒維持著既親密又疏離的複雜關係。

•Serk：Louisa 的父親，一位在日本出生長大的韓裔學者，他的家庭因父母選擇遷往北韓而分裂。

小說透過在 Serk、Anne 和 Louisa 之間切換的多重敘事視角，逐步拼湊出事件的全貌。這不僅是一個關於家庭失落與記憶的故事，更是一部深刻探討身分認同、歷史創傷、跨國政治（如日韓之間的歷史張力與北韓綁架事件）如何影響個人命運的史詩級作品。

本書特別推薦給喜愛 慢熱、由角色驅動的文學小說 的讀者。這是一部橫跨數十年、融合家庭劇與歷史懸疑的史詩級故事，深刻探討了失落、記憶與身分認同等主題。若您喜歡閱讀關於不完美、甚至難以讓人喜愛但極其真實的角色，並對非線性敘事與複雜的歷史背景感興趣，這本書將帶給您極具深度與情感衝擊的閱讀體驗。對於欣賞 Susan Choi 前作（如《Trust Exercise》）中那種智慧且毫不畏懼展現人性缺陷的寫作風格的讀者而言，這部格局更為宏大的新作絕對不容錯過。

**LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025**

A thrilling, globe-spanning novel that mines questions of memory, language, identity and family.

One evening, ten-year-old Louisa and her father take a walk out on the breakwater. They are spending the summer in a coastal Japanese town while her father Serk, a Korean émigré, completes an academic secondment from his American university. When Louisa wakes hours later, she has washed up on the beach and her father is missing, probably drowned.

The disappearance of Louisa’s father shatters their small family unit. As Louisa and her American mother Anne return to the US, this traumatic event reverberates across time and space, and the mystery of what really happened to Serk slowly unravels.

Flashlight is a masterpiece that moves between the post-war Korean immigrant community in Japan, to suburban America, and the North Korean regime, to tell the astonishing story of one family swept up in the tides of twentieth century history.

'Ferociously smart and full of surprises, Flashlight is thrilling to the last' ELEANOR CATTON

'Instantly bewitching... a writer at the height of her spectacular powers' JENNIFER EGAN

'A brilliant feat of storytelling, both intimate and sweeping... an immersive, addictive story' ANGIE KIM