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Flashlight
A novel tracing a father’s disappearance across time, nations, and memory, from the author of Trust Exercise.
One summer night, Louisa and her father take a walk on the breakwater. Her father is carrying a flashlight. He cannot swim. Later, Louisa is found on the beach, soaked to the skin, barely alive. Her father is gone. She is ten years old.
Louisa is an only child of parents who have severed themselves from the past. Her father, Serk, is Korean, but was born and raised in Japan; he lost touch with his family when they bought into the promises of postwar Pyongyang and relocated to North Korea. Her American mother, Anne, is estranged from her Midwestern family after a reckless adventure in her youth. And then there is Tobias, Anne’s illegitimate son, whose reappearance in their lives will have astonishing consequences.
But now it is just Anne and Louisa, Louisa and Anne, adrift and facing the challenges of ordinary life in the wake of great loss. United, separated, and also repelled by their mutual grief, they attempt to move on. But they cannot escape the echoes of that night. What really happened to Louisa’s father?
Shifting perspectives across time and character and turning back again and again to that night by the sea, Flashlight chases the shock waves of one family’s catastrophe, even as they are swept up in the invisible currents of history.
A monumental new novel from the National Book Award winner Susan Choi, Flashlight spans decades and continents in a spellbinding, heart-gripping investigation of family, loss, memory, and the ways in which we are shaped by what we cannot see.
One summer night, Louisa and her father take a walk on the breakwater. Her father is carrying a flashlight. He cannot swim. Later, Louisa is found on the beach, soaked to the skin, barely alive. Her father is gone. She is ten years old.
Louisa is an only child of parents who have severed themselves from the past. Her father, Serk, is Korean, but was born and raised in Japan; he lost touch with his family when they bought into the promises of postwar Pyongyang and relocated to North Korea. Her American mother, Anne, is estranged from her Midwestern family after a reckless adventure in her youth. And then there is Tobias, Anne’s illegitimate son, whose reappearance in their lives will have astonishing consequences.
But now it is just Anne and Louisa, Louisa and Anne, adrift and facing the challenges of ordinary life in the wake of great loss. United, separated, and also repelled by their mutual grief, they attempt to move on. But they cannot escape the echoes of that night. What really happened to Louisa’s father?
Shifting perspectives across time and character and turning back again and again to that night by the sea, Flashlight chases the shock waves of one family’s catastrophe, even as they are swept up in the invisible currents of history.
A monumental new novel from the National Book Award winner Susan Choi, Flashlight spans decades and continents in a spellbinding, heart-gripping investigation of family, loss, memory, and the ways in which we are shaped by what we cannot see.
466 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 3, 2025
3605 people are currently reading
73794 people want to read
About the author
Susan Choi
23 books1,020 followersSusan Choi was born in South Bend, Indiana and was raised there and in Houston, Texas. She studied literature at Yale and writing at Cornell, and worked for several years as a fact-checker for The New Yorker.
Her latest novel, Trust Exercise, was the winner of the 2019 National Book Award for Fiction, and was a national bestseller. Trust Exercise was also named a best book of 2019 by The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, New York Magazine, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Buzzfeed, Entertainment Weekly, Los Angeles Times, ELLE, Bustle, Town & Country, Publishers Weekly, The Millions, The Chicago Tribune, and TIME.
Her first novel, The Foreign Student, won the Asian-American Literary Award for fiction, and her second novel, American Woman, was a finalist for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize.
With David Remnick she co-edited the anthology Wonderful Town: New York Stories from The New Yorker, and her non-fiction has appeared in publications such as Vogue, Tin House, Allure, O, and The New York Times and in anthologies such as Money Changes Everything and Brooklyn Was Mine.
A recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, she lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband, Pete Wells and their sons Dexter and Elliot
Her latest novel, Trust Exercise, was the winner of the 2019 National Book Award for Fiction, and was a national bestseller. Trust Exercise was also named a best book of 2019 by The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, New York Magazine, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Buzzfeed, Entertainment Weekly, Los Angeles Times, ELLE, Bustle, Town & Country, Publishers Weekly, The Millions, The Chicago Tribune, and TIME.
Her first novel, The Foreign Student, won the Asian-American Literary Award for fiction, and her second novel, American Woman, was a finalist for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize.
With David Remnick she co-edited the anthology Wonderful Town: New York Stories from The New Yorker, and her non-fiction has appeared in publications such as Vogue, Tin House, Allure, O, and The New York Times and in anthologies such as Money Changes Everything and Brooklyn Was Mine.
A recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, she lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband, Pete Wells and their sons Dexter and Elliot
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,786 reviews
August 26, 2025
if a book is long and character-driven, there's a 90% chance i'll like it.
if a book is long and character-driven, there's a 90% chance i'll like it. but that's just one of the many reasons why i was blown away by this one.
susan choi's works can be polarizing, but i always find myself entranced by the intelligence and unflinching reality of her writing. in flashlight, as in her others, she brilliantly chronicles hard-to-like characters as they come up against the hard to imagine. choi is so skilled at writing wrongdoing, and the people that populate her novels are almost breathtaking in their flaws — selfishness, bravado, self-centering and victimization abound here. families resent each other, become each other. and yet you so clearly see the impossibility of their lives, the contradictions they face, the walls they build to inure themselves against them, that you can only feel heartbreaking sympathy.
on top of all of that, this has a sneaking plot, a suspense that creeps up, hushed, in what seems on the surface to be simply a very well-done character-driven novel but reveals itself suddenly doubled.
anyway. i thought it was excellent.
bottom line: susan choi fandom wins again.
(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)
if a book is long and character-driven, there's a 90% chance i'll like it. but that's just one of the many reasons why i was blown away by this one.
susan choi's works can be polarizing, but i always find myself entranced by the intelligence and unflinching reality of her writing. in flashlight, as in her others, she brilliantly chronicles hard-to-like characters as they come up against the hard to imagine. choi is so skilled at writing wrongdoing, and the people that populate her novels are almost breathtaking in their flaws — selfishness, bravado, self-centering and victimization abound here. families resent each other, become each other. and yet you so clearly see the impossibility of their lives, the contradictions they face, the walls they build to inure themselves against them, that you can only feel heartbreaking sympathy.
on top of all of that, this has a sneaking plot, a suspense that creeps up, hushed, in what seems on the surface to be simply a very well-done character-driven novel but reveals itself suddenly doubled.
anyway. i thought it was excellent.
bottom line: susan choi fandom wins again.
(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)
June 8, 2025
Far too long and boring
While out walking with her father, Louisa, aged 10, finds herself alone on the beach, and her father is missing. His body is never found. What happened to him?
Flashlight does have some interesting themes such as being an immigrant outside of the United States. Additionally, this book is a unique mixture of mystery and historical fiction.
In regard to the mystery, what happened to Louisa’s father, the book did a poor job sign posting—for most of the book it felt like we are no closer to discovering answers. This caused the pages to drag; it was such a chore to read this book.
The editor of this book should have suggested cutting anything that doesn’t move the plot forward. For example, there was a completely irrelevant passage about an orange cat. Not that I am against cats. I am against reading a 460+ page book that should have been half its length.
Also, there were some paragraphs and sentences just far too long.
*Thanks, NetGalley, for a free copy of this book in exchange for my fair and unbiased opinion.
The Green Light at the End of the Dock (How much I spent):
Electronic Text – Free/Nada/Zilch through publisher
Connect With Me!
Blog Threads BookTube Facebook Insta My Bookstore at Pango
While out walking with her father, Louisa, aged 10, finds herself alone on the beach, and her father is missing. His body is never found. What happened to him?
Flashlight does have some interesting themes such as being an immigrant outside of the United States. Additionally, this book is a unique mixture of mystery and historical fiction.
In regard to the mystery, what happened to Louisa’s father, the book did a poor job sign posting—for most of the book it felt like we are no closer to discovering answers. This caused the pages to drag; it was such a chore to read this book.
The editor of this book should have suggested cutting anything that doesn’t move the plot forward. For example, there was a completely irrelevant passage about an orange cat. Not that I am against cats. I am against reading a 460+ page book that should have been half its length.
Also, there were some paragraphs and sentences just far too long.
*Thanks, NetGalley, for a free copy of this book in exchange for my fair and unbiased opinion.
The Green Light at the End of the Dock (How much I spent):
Electronic Text – Free/Nada/Zilch through publisher
Connect With Me!
Blog Threads BookTube Facebook Insta My Bookstore at Pango
September 23, 2025
Now Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2025
Nominated for the National Book Award for Fiction 2025
Susan Choi's latest is an epic tale about a multinational family affected by the North Korean mass abductions of South Koreans: More than 84,500 people were kidnapped and brought to the DPRK against their will, both during and after the Korean War, from both South Korea and from abroad. "Flashlight" starts with a young academic disappearing from a beach - only his ten-year-old daughter Louisa is found in a hypothermic state, she barely remembers anything. The story takes us back to the many lives of the man who was born as Seok Kang, the son of Korean immigrants to Japan. There, he was known as Hiroshi to avoid discrimination, and later went as Serk as a student in the US, where he met his American wife - and then we follow his destiny in the present.
His chapters are interwoven with those of other main characters: His wife Anne, who had a wild youth and suffers from multiple sclerosis; Anne's illegitimate son Tobias who survived a brain tumor and now lives like an enigmatic beat poet; Serk's and Anne's daughter Louisa who has a strained relationship with her mother while also resembling her in many ways; plus there are many captivating minor characters that drive the story forward and illustrate historic and societal circumstances, many of them related to the main cast, like the part of Serk's family that willingly left Japan for North Korea in the hopes of fleeing discrimination, as well as Louisa's and Anne's friends and acquaintances through the years. And while Choi planted many obvious puzzle pieces that will with great certainty show up again later, they eventually do form a well thought out image, with a designated place for every bit of information readers can gather along the way.
And yes, the author talks major world politics, wars and the relationship mainly between North and South Korea, Japan, China, and the US, the human cost behind figures and dates and news reports. But it's not a chore to learn here, because the characters are so complex, psychologically plausible and captivating, and the plot takes on speed and turns into a bona fide historical suspense novel. Sure, it's not nearly as aesthetically complex as Trust Exercise, Choi's controversial National Book Award Winner that I loved, but it's an absorbing read that incorporates four generation of a Korean-Japanese-American family with admirable ease.
The novel sometimes made me think of one of my favorite books, The Orphan Master's Son, which Choi does mention in her acknowledgements. And while I did not love Choi's achievement quite as much (Adam Johnson has this wild streak that I admire), this more conventional, sometimes a little too neatly wrapped approach offers great, perceptive writing, messy and thus realistic characters, and a multi-dimensional plot. Prize judges should certainly notice.
Nominated for the National Book Award for Fiction 2025
Susan Choi's latest is an epic tale about a multinational family affected by the North Korean mass abductions of South Koreans: More than 84,500 people were kidnapped and brought to the DPRK against their will, both during and after the Korean War, from both South Korea and from abroad. "Flashlight" starts with a young academic disappearing from a beach - only his ten-year-old daughter Louisa is found in a hypothermic state, she barely remembers anything. The story takes us back to the many lives of the man who was born as Seok Kang, the son of Korean immigrants to Japan. There, he was known as Hiroshi to avoid discrimination, and later went as Serk as a student in the US, where he met his American wife - and then we follow his destiny in the present.
His chapters are interwoven with those of other main characters: His wife Anne, who had a wild youth and suffers from multiple sclerosis; Anne's illegitimate son Tobias who survived a brain tumor and now lives like an enigmatic beat poet; Serk's and Anne's daughter Louisa who has a strained relationship with her mother while also resembling her in many ways; plus there are many captivating minor characters that drive the story forward and illustrate historic and societal circumstances, many of them related to the main cast, like the part of Serk's family that willingly left Japan for North Korea in the hopes of fleeing discrimination, as well as Louisa's and Anne's friends and acquaintances through the years. And while Choi planted many obvious puzzle pieces that will with great certainty show up again later, they eventually do form a well thought out image, with a designated place for every bit of information readers can gather along the way.
And yes, the author talks major world politics, wars and the relationship mainly between North and South Korea, Japan, China, and the US, the human cost behind figures and dates and news reports. But it's not a chore to learn here, because the characters are so complex, psychologically plausible and captivating, and the plot takes on speed and turns into a bona fide historical suspense novel. Sure, it's not nearly as aesthetically complex as Trust Exercise, Choi's controversial National Book Award Winner that I loved, but it's an absorbing read that incorporates four generation of a Korean-Japanese-American family with admirable ease.
The novel sometimes made me think of one of my favorite books, The Orphan Master's Son, which Choi does mention in her acknowledgements. And while I did not love Choi's achievement quite as much (Adam Johnson has this wild streak that I admire), this more conventional, sometimes a little too neatly wrapped approach offers great, perceptive writing, messy and thus realistic characters, and a multi-dimensional plot. Prize judges should certainly notice.
December 16, 2025
If you read it, you remember it: Five years ago, Susan Choi published a fraught story in the New Yorker about a little girl sparring with a psychologist after her father drowned in Japan. Rife with childhood aggression and confused grief, it’s a brilliant piece that slams shut in a moment of terrifying darkness.
That story — and all the hurts and questions folded into its crevices — now serves as the prologue for Choi’s formidable new novel, “Flashlight.”
Readers first drawn to Choi through her National Book Award-winning “Trust Exercise” (2019) — about students and teachers at a performing-arts school — will find here the same acute perception of emotional turmoil and a similarly serpentine reconsideration of disputed events. But in ambition and scope, “Flashlight” moves far beyond Choi’s celebrated academic novels or even her more political books, such as “American Woman,” which draws on the Patty Hearst kidnapping, or “A Person of Interest,” inspired by the case of University of California professor Wen Ho Lee, who was accused of being a Chinese spy.
With “Flashlight,” Choi’s appetite turns omnivorous. The claustrophobic atmosphere that made “Trust Exercise” so intense has exploded. She sweeps across decades and continents, gathering in her hands the cultural upheavals and political machinations of competing nations.
That may suggest a sprawling global drama, but in “Flashlight,” geopolitics are sharpened to a diamond point that crushes one little family. We see 10-year-old Louisa with her father only momentarily at the very start. “Someday, you’ll feel thankful to your mother,” he tells her. “But I want you to act thankful now.”
“These are the last words he ever says to her,” the narrator notes, and then, like Louisa’s father, we’re swept out to sea to spend the next 450 pages adrift on the waves of time. You simply must submit and pay attention. Choi has no respect for any chronology but her own cryptic order. In these pages, timelines splinter, diverge and finally — trust her — come crashing back together with...
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...
That story — and all the hurts and questions folded into its crevices — now serves as the prologue for Choi’s formidable new novel, “Flashlight.”
Readers first drawn to Choi through her National Book Award-winning “Trust Exercise” (2019) — about students and teachers at a performing-arts school — will find here the same acute perception of emotional turmoil and a similarly serpentine reconsideration of disputed events. But in ambition and scope, “Flashlight” moves far beyond Choi’s celebrated academic novels or even her more political books, such as “American Woman,” which draws on the Patty Hearst kidnapping, or “A Person of Interest,” inspired by the case of University of California professor Wen Ho Lee, who was accused of being a Chinese spy.
With “Flashlight,” Choi’s appetite turns omnivorous. The claustrophobic atmosphere that made “Trust Exercise” so intense has exploded. She sweeps across decades and continents, gathering in her hands the cultural upheavals and political machinations of competing nations.
That may suggest a sprawling global drama, but in “Flashlight,” geopolitics are sharpened to a diamond point that crushes one little family. We see 10-year-old Louisa with her father only momentarily at the very start. “Someday, you’ll feel thankful to your mother,” he tells her. “But I want you to act thankful now.”
“These are the last words he ever says to her,” the narrator notes, and then, like Louisa’s father, we’re swept out to sea to spend the next 450 pages adrift on the waves of time. You simply must submit and pay attention. Choi has no respect for any chronology but her own cryptic order. In these pages, timelines splinter, diverge and finally — trust her — come crashing back together with...
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...
September 24, 2025
Shortlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize.
A sprawling family novel, centred around an event in Japan. I feel this was a lot of tell and instruction to the reader how to feel and perceive events, and too little show
That’s not what I mean. You can love someone and still not be nice to them, in fact it is more common.
Susan Choi presents us with a far reaching moodscape, ranging from post-World War II Japan to New England towns, London, Paris, Hawaii and gleaming Seoul. I found Flashlight rather uneven and long, ranging from immersive scenes to explanations of Korean BBQ. I don’t fully get why this book feels so unrealistic to me compared to the likes of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow or A Little Life, that feature quite eccentric characters and skip through the years as well. Maybe I feel like the author is in love with her characters but just forget to progress the story in the meanwhile. Like as an example this boy Roman in Chapter 11 is more eccentric than anything from Donna Tartt in The Goldfinch, but that author builds things up much better and less instantaneously, and her characters feel so much more real.
The sections below are quite descriptive, just for me to follow what happens in this novel. In a way it is a lot, but also at times the pace feels almost glacial.
For those who rather go in cold into the book, I would not recommend reading further.
The book kicks off with a girl visiting a kid psychologist after the disappearance of her father on the beaches of Japan. She steals a flashlight from him. While intriguing, I found it a rather disjointed start to the novel, that then zooms into Seok. Here there are interesting dynamics of a Korean family after WW II in a hostile Japan, ruled over by the Americans who already start prosecuting suspected communists, at play. North Korea initially more prosperous than South Korea leads to a faithful choice that puts Seok on a wildly different trajectory in life.
We are then introduced to Anne. She is a seventh child. Pregnant, loosing her kid Tobias to a professor in the 60s, developing into a secretary and typist and then marrying Seok, who Americanised his name to Serk. There follows an unhappy marriage with their kid Louisa being discriminated by neighbours as a “halfbreed”. There is some interesting inversion of the concept of legitimate and adopted kid, with Tobias blond and Louisa having jet black hair here.
Also a very filmic scene involving strawberry picking, almost like one of the Jurrasic Park shots.
It is clinical and cold how a failing marriage is described, but effective.
Louisa experience major culture shock at 9, from moving to Japan: She too is merely wrong instead of being exceptional & The condition of being a stranger was like an illness
Brown haired and tall, even for an American she describes Japan as dirt poor, but manages to adapt much better than her mother (Is mummy dying?). There are some coincidences involving the earlier child and Anne which seems insanely convoluted for 1960/1970s pre-internet and Duolingo.
This is partly offset by touching scenes involving going to the movies and Osaka, which had a McDonalds.
The mother daughter relationship meanwhile is fraught to say the least:
When Louisa hated her mother it was because the thought of her caused so much pain; when she hated her father it was because she was conscious of emulating his remoteness.
Being in 1978, I would have thought that the Japan boom economy got starting then. By early 1970s the Japanese economy was already the second in the world. The novelist emphasising in the story decay, poverty, or dereliction seems an interesting aesthetic choice, to highlight characters’ alienation from the earlier American scenes. It feels more like a moodscape than a fully balanced, researched depiction of Japan at the time. Anyway, I feel this is a lot of tell and instruction to the reader how to feel and perceive and little show.
Also I wonder if the depiction of illness in the novel is fully realistic: Everything is a whole lot of work when your legs don’t
The Anne/Walter dynamic in chapter 10 is rather boring, with the whole this Korean BBQ which is described in all its minute details and given the impact on the wider novel.
Louisa meanwhile trying to gain social capital by an Eurotrip and projecting cynicism and aloofness.
She comes across rather as a bitch, maybe due to her traumas, and Anne also doesn’t fully have my sympathy despite everything, making it hard to get through the novel at this point.
Tobias might, despite being too saintlike for my tastes, be my favourite character actually.
To be fair, the ingrained and unchangeable parent/kid dynamic actually feels quite realistic.
But again later on London kids in the 80s doing seances instead of partying or doing drugs feels a bit weird choice in terms of localisation and I really don’t care about this third section of the novel and Louisa being socially inadequate.
I completely lack a sense of place, for instance now that she is London I get absolutely nothing, no neighbourhoods, no events that are discernible in time.
Ok at least in Paris the new Louvre pyramid is mentioned. But I still don’t even know what Louisa is supposed to study.
And we have tidbits like she hadn’t learned to eat with her knife in the righthand and her fork in her left hand, that makes me feel like I don't really get her as a character, despite the novel being 400+ pages. She seems completely other worldly at times: I didn’t know - like, how do you not know to pay for metro if you are from New York and worked in London?
It all feels so convoluted and I seriously doubt an USA passport holder would be so treated at UK border, especially as she travelled from London earlier.
Like what does this whole Chapter 11 do for the novel and progressing our perspective on Louisa as a person? Are we just to conclude she is stunted due to earlier events?
Roman grew up in Western Europe and is kind of over it - Ok I hate Roman already, thank the lord this Tarzan who randomly shows up in the novel doesn't take too much screen time.
Is this all to say that history just repeats in Louisa, dropping out of school and giving birth, it’s a bit lame if that is the message that this whole section builds up to, in my view.
Chapter 13 being a full flashback to events of earlier chapters, this just feels so weird.
Chapter 14, on other families (Disappearance demands explanation), is touching, but what does it say that completely ancillary characters bring this about instead of the main ones?
Then we have some hard-hitting scenes involving eating rats, prisoners required to stone each other and full blown famine, that makes the sentence There is always a worse thing seem just hopeful and not realistic.
It does makes one realise how geopolitical events, like sunshine politics, interfere in the life of the families who just want their abducted family members back.
Meanwhile Louisa doesn’t seem to grow up at all and despite its length the book felt at times impressionistic to me, especially in how relationships are mentioned but not described, while we zoomed in so much on earlier partners.
The ending is beautiful in a sense but I still wasn’t emotionally impacted as I expected.
A lot of what the novel seems to say is about the waste of potential, things could have been so different, and in a sense I think this also applies to the novel itself, which for me is squarely in the middle of the pack of Booker Prize longlist 2025 books I read so far.
A sprawling family novel, centred around an event in Japan. I feel this was a lot of tell and instruction to the reader how to feel and perceive events, and too little show
That’s not what I mean. You can love someone and still not be nice to them, in fact it is more common.
Susan Choi presents us with a far reaching moodscape, ranging from post-World War II Japan to New England towns, London, Paris, Hawaii and gleaming Seoul. I found Flashlight rather uneven and long, ranging from immersive scenes to explanations of Korean BBQ. I don’t fully get why this book feels so unrealistic to me compared to the likes of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow or A Little Life, that feature quite eccentric characters and skip through the years as well. Maybe I feel like the author is in love with her characters but just forget to progress the story in the meanwhile. Like as an example this boy Roman in Chapter 11 is more eccentric than anything from Donna Tartt in The Goldfinch, but that author builds things up much better and less instantaneously, and her characters feel so much more real.
The sections below are quite descriptive, just for me to follow what happens in this novel. In a way it is a lot, but also at times the pace feels almost glacial.
For those who rather go in cold into the book, I would not recommend reading further.
The book kicks off with a girl visiting a kid psychologist after the disappearance of her father on the beaches of Japan. She steals a flashlight from him. While intriguing, I found it a rather disjointed start to the novel, that then zooms into Seok. Here there are interesting dynamics of a Korean family after WW II in a hostile Japan, ruled over by the Americans who already start prosecuting suspected communists, at play. North Korea initially more prosperous than South Korea leads to a faithful choice that puts Seok on a wildly different trajectory in life.
We are then introduced to Anne. She is a seventh child. Pregnant, loosing her kid Tobias to a professor in the 60s, developing into a secretary and typist and then marrying Seok, who Americanised his name to Serk. There follows an unhappy marriage with their kid Louisa being discriminated by neighbours as a “halfbreed”. There is some interesting inversion of the concept of legitimate and adopted kid, with Tobias blond and Louisa having jet black hair here.
Also a very filmic scene involving strawberry picking, almost like one of the Jurrasic Park shots.
It is clinical and cold how a failing marriage is described, but effective.
Louisa experience major culture shock at 9, from moving to Japan: She too is merely wrong instead of being exceptional & The condition of being a stranger was like an illness
Brown haired and tall, even for an American she describes Japan as dirt poor, but manages to adapt much better than her mother (Is mummy dying?). There are some coincidences involving the earlier child and Anne which seems insanely convoluted for 1960/1970s pre-internet and Duolingo.
This is partly offset by touching scenes involving going to the movies and Osaka, which had a McDonalds.
The mother daughter relationship meanwhile is fraught to say the least:
When Louisa hated her mother it was because the thought of her caused so much pain; when she hated her father it was because she was conscious of emulating his remoteness.
Being in 1978, I would have thought that the Japan boom economy got starting then. By early 1970s the Japanese economy was already the second in the world. The novelist emphasising in the story decay, poverty, or dereliction seems an interesting aesthetic choice, to highlight characters’ alienation from the earlier American scenes. It feels more like a moodscape than a fully balanced, researched depiction of Japan at the time. Anyway, I feel this is a lot of tell and instruction to the reader how to feel and perceive and little show.
Also I wonder if the depiction of illness in the novel is fully realistic: Everything is a whole lot of work when your legs don’t
The Anne/Walter dynamic in chapter 10 is rather boring, with the whole this Korean BBQ which is described in all its minute details and given the impact on the wider novel.
Louisa meanwhile trying to gain social capital by an Eurotrip and projecting cynicism and aloofness.
She comes across rather as a bitch, maybe due to her traumas, and Anne also doesn’t fully have my sympathy despite everything, making it hard to get through the novel at this point.
Tobias might, despite being too saintlike for my tastes, be my favourite character actually.
To be fair, the ingrained and unchangeable parent/kid dynamic actually feels quite realistic.
But again later on London kids in the 80s doing seances instead of partying or doing drugs feels a bit weird choice in terms of localisation and I really don’t care about this third section of the novel and Louisa being socially inadequate.
I completely lack a sense of place, for instance now that she is London I get absolutely nothing, no neighbourhoods, no events that are discernible in time.
Ok at least in Paris the new Louvre pyramid is mentioned. But I still don’t even know what Louisa is supposed to study.
And we have tidbits like she hadn’t learned to eat with her knife in the righthand and her fork in her left hand, that makes me feel like I don't really get her as a character, despite the novel being 400+ pages. She seems completely other worldly at times: I didn’t know - like, how do you not know to pay for metro if you are from New York and worked in London?
It all feels so convoluted and I seriously doubt an USA passport holder would be so treated at UK border, especially as she travelled from London earlier.
Like what does this whole Chapter 11 do for the novel and progressing our perspective on Louisa as a person? Are we just to conclude she is stunted due to earlier events?
Roman grew up in Western Europe and is kind of over it - Ok I hate Roman already, thank the lord this Tarzan who randomly shows up in the novel doesn't take too much screen time.
Is this all to say that history just repeats in Louisa, dropping out of school and giving birth, it’s a bit lame if that is the message that this whole section builds up to, in my view.
Chapter 13 being a full flashback to events of earlier chapters, this just feels so weird.
Chapter 14, on other families (Disappearance demands explanation), is touching, but what does it say that completely ancillary characters bring this about instead of the main ones?
Then we have some hard-hitting scenes involving eating rats, prisoners required to stone each other and full blown famine, that makes the sentence There is always a worse thing seem just hopeful and not realistic.
It does makes one realise how geopolitical events, like sunshine politics, interfere in the life of the families who just want their abducted family members back.
Meanwhile Louisa doesn’t seem to grow up at all and despite its length the book felt at times impressionistic to me, especially in how relationships are mentioned but not described, while we zoomed in so much on earlier partners.
The ending is beautiful in a sense but I still wasn’t emotionally impacted as I expected.
A lot of what the novel seems to say is about the waste of potential, things could have been so different, and in a sense I think this also applies to the novel itself, which for me is squarely in the middle of the pack of Booker Prize longlist 2025 books I read so far.
October 13, 2025
Flashlight deserves the accolades and award nominations (Booker Prize, National Book Award) it has received. What a profound and powerful read. It is an epic that is exquisitely written. I would put this one in the top 10 of the BEST books I’ve read. If you read and enjoyed Pachinko, then Flashlight is for you. Both books explore the horrors of history, effects of racism, and family trauma. This comparison is the best praise I could give this novel. I don’t think I have words to capture how incredibly written this novel is.
The time period plays an important role in the narrative. The reader views the challenges of an interracial marriage, parenthood, immigration, opportunity, and being ethnically Korean born in Japan. The relationships between both Koreas, Japan, China, and the US are entangled and tenuous.
The chapters are told from the perspective of different characters and everything stems from the opening event. The characters are brilliantly brought to life. Each was complex, multilayered, and stayed true to their essence throughout the novel. I connected with each character in a different way. The theme of being trapped is explored within each of their lives. Trapped in a marriage, family, country, role/perception, or circumstance.
Another theme explored is endurance of the physical body, memory, and the human heart. My favorite character was Tobias. Anne left such an impression on me. The ups and downs of her life, and the ebb and flow of her relationship with her children pulled at my heart. Flashlight captures all aspects of the human experience from the tragic to the mundane. What an incredible listening experience.
The time period plays an important role in the narrative. The reader views the challenges of an interracial marriage, parenthood, immigration, opportunity, and being ethnically Korean born in Japan. The relationships between both Koreas, Japan, China, and the US are entangled and tenuous.
The chapters are told from the perspective of different characters and everything stems from the opening event. The characters are brilliantly brought to life. Each was complex, multilayered, and stayed true to their essence throughout the novel. I connected with each character in a different way. The theme of being trapped is explored within each of their lives. Trapped in a marriage, family, country, role/perception, or circumstance.
Another theme explored is endurance of the physical body, memory, and the human heart. My favorite character was Tobias. Anne left such an impression on me. The ups and downs of her life, and the ebb and flow of her relationship with her children pulled at my heart. Flashlight captures all aspects of the human experience from the tragic to the mundane. What an incredible listening experience.
April 18, 2025
I have been reading Susan Choi for a couple of decades now. She is always good, but for me her last two novels were spectacular. Flashlight, to me, felt like a return to her older subjects and style. It's a story inspired by real events, it's an exploration of identity and secrets, family and race and nationality. There is so much in it that you can sink your teeth into, but it never came together to me as a novel.
We focus mostly on a small nuclear family: Louisa, Anne, and Serk. Serk is Korean, but who lived his whole life in postwar Japan and has little connection to that identity. Anne is a white American woman who left a traditional life only to end up back in something very traditional married to Serk. And Louisa, their biracial child, starts out as simply precocious but gradually defines herself in opposition to her mother. All three of these characters keep so much of their lives secret. It is hard to talk about because learning what those secrets are is part of the novel's greatest pleasures. But I noted over and over again how much each of these characters was defined by what they do not say, what they do not share, about themselves. How much these decisions to hold back parts of themselves define their lives.
This isn't a novel that moves in a straight line. Not in its structure and not in its plot. By the time you get to the last third of the novel you realize that it's something very different than what you thought it was. Choi has made this kind of move in her books before, but here this turn did not pull me in further.
The problem, though, was not really about the story. It was the telling of it. Somehow the prose here had long stretches--especially for Serk--where the story feels flat, where there is so much that has to be explained, so much time that has to pass, that it feels like page after page of exposition. Compare that to some of Anne and Louisa's chapters--Anne with the strawberry picking trip and Louisa going to Europe--are riveting, masterfully done and incredibly affecting. To read one of those deeply impactful chapters and then to feel like I was reading through a rather dull text was jarring. I recognize that this was likely purposeful, that there is something about the telling of Serk's story that Choi wants to do. But for me as a reader, it felt like I was trying to walk through mud.
Still a lot to admire, some really rich themes. Choi is certainly still a force.
We focus mostly on a small nuclear family: Louisa, Anne, and Serk. Serk is Korean, but who lived his whole life in postwar Japan and has little connection to that identity. Anne is a white American woman who left a traditional life only to end up back in something very traditional married to Serk. And Louisa, their biracial child, starts out as simply precocious but gradually defines herself in opposition to her mother. All three of these characters keep so much of their lives secret. It is hard to talk about because learning what those secrets are is part of the novel's greatest pleasures. But I noted over and over again how much each of these characters was defined by what they do not say, what they do not share, about themselves. How much these decisions to hold back parts of themselves define their lives.
This isn't a novel that moves in a straight line. Not in its structure and not in its plot. By the time you get to the last third of the novel you realize that it's something very different than what you thought it was. Choi has made this kind of move in her books before, but here this turn did not pull me in further.
The problem, though, was not really about the story. It was the telling of it. Somehow the prose here had long stretches--especially for Serk--where the story feels flat, where there is so much that has to be explained, so much time that has to pass, that it feels like page after page of exposition. Compare that to some of Anne and Louisa's chapters--Anne with the strawberry picking trip and Louisa going to Europe--are riveting, masterfully done and incredibly affecting. To read one of those deeply impactful chapters and then to feel like I was reading through a rather dull text was jarring. I recognize that this was likely purposeful, that there is something about the telling of Serk's story that Choi wants to do. But for me as a reader, it felt like I was trying to walk through mud.
Still a lot to admire, some really rich themes. Choi is certainly still a force.
September 17, 2025
Susan Choi knows how to write a sentence, that's for sure. Her prose, at least in this book (my first from her), is a pleasure to read. She clearly enjoyed the process with this one as it does meander and lead down surprising paths that occasionally left me wondering where it was going and why we needed to know as much as we were being told (and a lot of it IS telling, not showing which I struggled with at times), but THAT ENDING. That last chapter. It fully brought me back around to being wowed and moved by this story.
It's one you definitely have to be patient with, though I never once felt myself bored by it; and the end is worth it, imo. It's not a conventional story structure and she doesn't give you everything you might want and/or need as a reader of a 'sweeping' historical family drama. There's so much left unsaid. And at times that is INCREDIBLY frustrating. It made me feel like the characters were extremely detailed depictions of people but not actual, real flesh and blood humans. But by the end, I was second guessing myself. I think Choi did in fact do enough to convince me otherwise. I just had to be patient and be proven wrong by her.
I was incredibly moved by the end, nearly holding my breath. That's the type of reading experience I look for. I don't say this because it's some epic mystery novel with an action-packed and satisfying ending where all the clues are laid out and mapped for the reader to understand every missing detail. It's not that. It's an incredibly human book of grief and love and loss and forgiveness, for others and for one's self and for the world we live in if only for a brief moment and then are gone.
It's one you definitely have to be patient with, though I never once felt myself bored by it; and the end is worth it, imo. It's not a conventional story structure and she doesn't give you everything you might want and/or need as a reader of a 'sweeping' historical family drama. There's so much left unsaid. And at times that is INCREDIBLY frustrating. It made me feel like the characters were extremely detailed depictions of people but not actual, real flesh and blood humans. But by the end, I was second guessing myself. I think Choi did in fact do enough to convince me otherwise. I just had to be patient and be proven wrong by her.
I was incredibly moved by the end, nearly holding my breath. That's the type of reading experience I look for. I don't say this because it's some epic mystery novel with an action-packed and satisfying ending where all the clues are laid out and mapped for the reader to understand every missing detail. It's not that. It's an incredibly human book of grief and love and loss and forgiveness, for others and for one's self and for the world we live in if only for a brief moment and then are gone.
October 6, 2025
The novelty wasn’t there because I’ve read Pachinko. More a generational novel than a disappearance one, this book makes the bold choice of going to North Korea. The ending is emotionally charged, but I can’t justify its length.
July 10, 2025
I struggled A LOT to finish this book. It took me almost 2 weeks to read (and if you know me, it's very uncharacteristic that it took me so long) - I almost DNF it several times. But I didn't give up! I persevered!
When all is said and done, this book was not for me. It was highly character driven, which I usually love, but it didn't work this time. The details were SO boring about each of these characters. And I honestly didn't LIKE any of the 3 protagonists. Normally I'm ok with not liking some of the characters, but these all rubbed me the wrong way. I viewed them all as despicable people who just let things happen to them and didn't take any action to rectify their situations. My favorite character ended up being Tobias (Anne's older son from prev. situation) and he wasn't in the story that much.
The author is obviously a very talented writer, but some tighter editing could have maybe improved this book some.
Thank you to Net Galley, the publisher and author for an ebook ARC in exchange for my honest review!
When all is said and done, this book was not for me. It was highly character driven, which I usually love, but it didn't work this time. The details were SO boring about each of these characters. And I honestly didn't LIKE any of the 3 protagonists. Normally I'm ok with not liking some of the characters, but these all rubbed me the wrong way. I viewed them all as despicable people who just let things happen to them and didn't take any action to rectify their situations. My favorite character ended up being Tobias (Anne's older son from prev. situation) and he wasn't in the story that much.
The author is obviously a very talented writer, but some tighter editing could have maybe improved this book some.
Thank you to Net Galley, the publisher and author for an ebook ARC in exchange for my honest review!
August 6, 2025
“Love is, perhaps, the sensation of expertise that erupts out of nowhere, and as time goes on accumulates enough soil at its feet to be standing on something.”
I had the unique experience of finishing Flashlight the day that it was announced it had made the Booker Longlist !
The book starts with a memory—Louisa is ten and walking with her father along the breakshore in Japan. Hours later she is discovered soaking wet and alone. Her father is nowhere to be found. It’s clear that Louisa’s memory is distorted, but the damage is equally obvious.
From there, the novel steps back. We examine the family from the beginning: who they were as individuals, who they were together, and who they are, after this event.
Though the mystery of what happened to Louisa’s father (Serk) is at the core of this novel, it is not the central takeaway. It isn’t a thriller, you don’t burn through the pages, and it is, in fact, quite dense.
I was often challenged by this entirely impressive novel. The scope of it blew me away. I don’t even know how one begins to craft a story like this!
If you are hoping to sneak in one last really, truly great novel this summer… Might I suggest starting with this one?
I had the unique experience of finishing Flashlight the day that it was announced it had made the Booker Longlist !
The book starts with a memory—Louisa is ten and walking with her father along the breakshore in Japan. Hours later she is discovered soaking wet and alone. Her father is nowhere to be found. It’s clear that Louisa’s memory is distorted, but the damage is equally obvious.
From there, the novel steps back. We examine the family from the beginning: who they were as individuals, who they were together, and who they are, after this event.
Though the mystery of what happened to Louisa’s father (Serk) is at the core of this novel, it is not the central takeaway. It isn’t a thriller, you don’t burn through the pages, and it is, in fact, quite dense.
I was often challenged by this entirely impressive novel. The scope of it blew me away. I don’t even know how one begins to craft a story like this!
If you are hoping to sneak in one last really, truly great novel this summer… Might I suggest starting with this one?
November 12, 2025
My prediction for this years Booker winner. A complex family story that delivers in both plot and characters. A story I found addictive in all the good ways. Starts with a short story in the prologue and then goes on to feel in all the details
Its been weeks now since I finished this book and it still holds a large portion of the place in my brain where the books I've read lately live. I know it will be in my top ten of this year. I loved the characters, especially the father/daughter relationship. Who do we live for and what keeps us alive and striving? How does our experiences become manifest in the lives we choose. This story had caused me to think about just a few of these questions.
I'm not sure I could adequately describe the plot in this book, so if that is what you are looking for in this review I would refer you to the short story that begins the tale. If it intrigues you the next 500 pages won't quite be enough.
Its been weeks now since I finished this book and it still holds a large portion of the place in my brain where the books I've read lately live. I know it will be in my top ten of this year. I loved the characters, especially the father/daughter relationship. Who do we live for and what keeps us alive and striving? How does our experiences become manifest in the lives we choose. This story had caused me to think about just a few of these questions.
I'm not sure I could adequately describe the plot in this book, so if that is what you are looking for in this review I would refer you to the short story that begins the tale. If it intrigues you the next 500 pages won't quite be enough.
May 21, 2025
5⭐️ I could not put down this big beautiful expansive story! Filled with emotion, love, grief, and family drama, the gorgeous prose grabbed me from the first pages.
Told from alternating POV chapters of Louisa, her Korean Japanese father, Serk, and her American mother Anne. Multi timelines add to the dramatic telling of a tragic and engrossing tale that leads to the tearful ending.
The main characters of Louisa, Serk, and Anne are flawed and unlikable at times but I fell in love with each of them in the telling of their stories. Anne’s older son Tobias is also equally flawed but has a quirky likeability.
Lots of post WWII history in Korea and Japan adds the backdrop to an intriguing, mysterious, tale that is gripping as well as satisfying.
Issues of immigration, ethnicity, culture, belonging, parenting, and forgiveness are prominent in the unfolding drama.
There is a big twist well into the story that surprised me and kept me on the edge of my seat. I highly recommend this book!
Thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus, & Giroux publishing for the ARC In exchange for my honest review.
Told from alternating POV chapters of Louisa, her Korean Japanese father, Serk, and her American mother Anne. Multi timelines add to the dramatic telling of a tragic and engrossing tale that leads to the tearful ending.
The main characters of Louisa, Serk, and Anne are flawed and unlikable at times but I fell in love with each of them in the telling of their stories. Anne’s older son Tobias is also equally flawed but has a quirky likeability.
Lots of post WWII history in Korea and Japan adds the backdrop to an intriguing, mysterious, tale that is gripping as well as satisfying.
Issues of immigration, ethnicity, culture, belonging, parenting, and forgiveness are prominent in the unfolding drama.
There is a big twist well into the story that surprised me and kept me on the edge of my seat. I highly recommend this book!
Thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus, & Giroux publishing for the ARC In exchange for my honest review.
January 7, 2025
ARC for review. To be published June 3, 2025.
3.5 stars, rounded to 4, but only with reflection; I liked it more than I originally thought.
This is one family’s nightmare. When Louisa was ten she and her father, Serk took a nighttime walk on the beach in Japan. Her father has a flashlight; he cannot swim. Sometime later Louisa is found washed up by the tide, barely clinging to life. Her father is gone and his body is never found.
Serk was an ethnic Korean raised in Japan when his family fled war. Louisa’s mother, Anne, is an American and she is estranged from her family following an incident in her youth. Tobias, Anne’s illegitimate son, Tobias, appears in their life, to major consequences.
Why did Serk take Anne and Louisa to Japan right before he disappeared? Are there things we don’t see?
This family saga was not what I was expecting, but I found it impressive in scope even though the pace was somewhat sluggish - it took me a long time to finish this. This is my second book by Choi and her writing is good, if a bit sterile; her characters always seem to exist at a bit of a remove. Here there were things I wanted covered in greater detail and other events and paths I thought could have been edited. So, overall, enjoyable, I just wish Vhoi’d characters didn’t often feel inscrutable.
3.5 stars, rounded to 4, but only with reflection; I liked it more than I originally thought.
This is one family’s nightmare. When Louisa was ten she and her father, Serk took a nighttime walk on the beach in Japan. Her father has a flashlight; he cannot swim. Sometime later Louisa is found washed up by the tide, barely clinging to life. Her father is gone and his body is never found.
Serk was an ethnic Korean raised in Japan when his family fled war. Louisa’s mother, Anne, is an American and she is estranged from her family following an incident in her youth. Tobias, Anne’s illegitimate son, Tobias, appears in their life, to major consequences.
Why did Serk take Anne and Louisa to Japan right before he disappeared? Are there things we don’t see?
This family saga was not what I was expecting, but I found it impressive in scope even though the pace was somewhat sluggish - it took me a long time to finish this. This is my second book by Choi and her writing is good, if a bit sterile; her characters always seem to exist at a bit of a remove. Here there were things I wanted covered in greater detail and other events and paths I thought could have been edited. So, overall, enjoyable, I just wish Vhoi’d characters didn’t often feel inscrutable.
December 18, 2025
“Flashlight” is a kind of quiet twin to “The Orphan Master's Son.” It deals with the triangle of America, Japan, and North Korea and with fates that are determined by their respective national backgrounds.
At the center of the story is the investigation into the disappearance of a father and husband, which is conducted in a strangely emotionless manner. This is because the social relationships within the family are highly dysfunctional and there was no real “family atmosphere” even before his disappearance. As a result, the silent struggles of the family members with themselves and each other are viewed with a great deal of detachment. Only rarely does one feel connected to them. This may be because none of the characters are really likable. No sooner has one become attached to one of them than the perspective changes and one is served further negative traits about the others. This may be realistic, but it fails to inspire identification.
There are jumps in time and resulting gaps, which of course makes sense when taking stock of several lives. But sometimes the jumps in time are so big that you also distance yourself from the characters here. Suddenly, one of them reappears decades older, and you have to rethink the changed character.
Added to this is Choi's extremely detailed storytelling. Some authors manage to draw the reader into the story in this way, but Choi only succeeds in doing so in a few places. Fatigue sets in instead of insight.
Nevertheless, there are passages that remain in the memory. In particular, Louisa's journey from Paris to London by bus and Serk's story stick in the mind. They illustrate how far we are—from a global perspective—from a humane, just society. The mechanisms of power are questioned by showing them in an unvarnished light, and that is the great merit of the novel.
At the center of the story is the investigation into the disappearance of a father and husband, which is conducted in a strangely emotionless manner. This is because the social relationships within the family are highly dysfunctional and there was no real “family atmosphere” even before his disappearance. As a result, the silent struggles of the family members with themselves and each other are viewed with a great deal of detachment. Only rarely does one feel connected to them. This may be because none of the characters are really likable. No sooner has one become attached to one of them than the perspective changes and one is served further negative traits about the others. This may be realistic, but it fails to inspire identification.
There are jumps in time and resulting gaps, which of course makes sense when taking stock of several lives. But sometimes the jumps in time are so big that you also distance yourself from the characters here. Suddenly, one of them reappears decades older, and you have to rethink the changed character.
Added to this is Choi's extremely detailed storytelling. Some authors manage to draw the reader into the story in this way, but Choi only succeeds in doing so in a few places. Fatigue sets in instead of insight.
Nevertheless, there are passages that remain in the memory. In particular, Louisa's journey from Paris to London by bus and Serk's story stick in the mind. They illustrate how far we are—from a global perspective—from a humane, just society. The mechanisms of power are questioned by showing them in an unvarnished light, and that is the great merit of the novel.
September 17, 2025
Једва сам завршио ово.
Толико споро, досадно, пуно клишеа, десетине страница о догађајима или нечему што нема АПСОЛУТНО НИКАКВЕ везе са главним током приче, нити тој причи додаје било какав квалитет. Врло мучно искуство.
Ауторка каже да је књига настала из приче у Њујоркеру. Можда би било боље да је све остало на 2-3 стране. Овако, имамо 500 страна мучења. А посебна ствар је језик - толико "учених" речи, а у ствари празнина.
Толико споро, досадно, пуно клишеа, десетине страница о догађајима или нечему што нема АПСОЛУТНО НИКАКВЕ везе са главним током приче, нити тој причи додаје било какав квалитет. Врло мучно искуство.
Ауторка каже да је књига настала из приче у Њујоркеру. Можда би било боље да је све остало на 2-3 стране. Овако, имамо 500 страна мучења. А посебна ствар је језик - толико "учених" речи, а у ствари празнина.
December 6, 2025
I enjoyed Flashlight. It is well written and populated with interesting characters. However, readers--like myself--who are drawn to plot-driven narratives may have some qualms with the work. In fact, as I reflect on the novel, I keep wondering what it was actually about and even who was the main protagonist. WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD It is tempting to think that the book relates how a family is affected by a tragic event. But, there are large portions of Flashlight--e.g., Anne's background and virtually Tobias's entire story arc--that have nothing to do with Serk's disappearance. This amorphous plot is somehow unsatisfying. I also disliked the ambiguity about why Serk came to be abducted. While reading the novel, I assumed that he was lured back to Japan and set up for abduction by his sister. However, this clearly turned out to be false. So, are we to believe that it was purely an accident that North Korean raiders came upon him? Again, the absence of resolution is somehow disagreeable.
December 1, 2024
Flashlight is gripping, I couldn’t put it down, a heartbreaking, propulsive, mysterious book that I craved when I was away from it. Repeatedly, I gasped aloud and texted Holy shit to my friends. (Choi is like the M. Night Shyamalan of literary fiction but better). I’m always impressed by Choi’s ability to write deep, searching novels that I also can’t stop reading. Flashlight seems particularly resonant for this moment we’re in, but read it to find out what I mean because I don’t want to spoil it. Then message me cos I’m dying for someone to talk to about it.
July 13, 2025
How would you rate a book that was well-written but with characters and a story that are entirely unlikeable, unrelatable?
This book is written around a 3.5/4 but good lord I literally pushed and shoved my way through the story and the characters.
This is bland, predictable, unpleasant.
This book is written around a 3.5/4 but good lord I literally pushed and shoved my way through the story and the characters.
This is bland, predictable, unpleasant.
August 16, 2025
3.5
Flashlight gives us the story of Anne, Serk and Louisa Kang and is narrated by all three. Anne is an American who was forced to give up her first child, Tobias. Her husband, Serk, is a Japanese born Korean whose family split when his parents decided to go back to North Korea while Serk stayed in Japan.
When their child, Louisa, is still young Serk is persuaded to return to Japan for work. While there Anne falls ill and Serk and Louisa form a bond which leaves Anne alone a lot of the time. During a family holiday to the coast Serk and Louisa go missing. Louisa is found almost drowned but Serk never returns.
The story that follows describes Louisa and Anne's fractious relationship in America, along with the occasional visit from Tobias, which Louisa resents. We do not find out Serk's fate until the end of the novel.
I have to say that while this novel is clearly extremely well researched and well written it did become, for me, incredibly tedious. Every part of the three's lives is described in endless detail and I got very bored in the second half.
I did enjoy parts of the story including Louisa's travels in Europe and Tobias' story, such as it is. These seemed to flow beautifully but just as I was getting interested we switch back to Anne's troubles.
The characters are also quite irritating. Anne seems to find everything dull and not worth her time, Serk is an obsessive father who drives a wedge between mother and child and Louisa begins as a spoiled child and turns into a permanently irritated adult. I have no clue why she is angry with her mother- and its not occasional, its everything her mother does or says.
I'd like to say Louisa is the least sympathetic character but, to be honest, none of them are particularly pleasant people and I found it very hard to care about any problems they encountered - and they encounter huge, life changing/threatening changes.
Thankyou to Netgalley and Farrar, Strauss & Giroux for the advance review copy.
Flashlight gives us the story of Anne, Serk and Louisa Kang and is narrated by all three. Anne is an American who was forced to give up her first child, Tobias. Her husband, Serk, is a Japanese born Korean whose family split when his parents decided to go back to North Korea while Serk stayed in Japan.
When their child, Louisa, is still young Serk is persuaded to return to Japan for work. While there Anne falls ill and Serk and Louisa form a bond which leaves Anne alone a lot of the time. During a family holiday to the coast Serk and Louisa go missing. Louisa is found almost drowned but Serk never returns.
The story that follows describes Louisa and Anne's fractious relationship in America, along with the occasional visit from Tobias, which Louisa resents. We do not find out Serk's fate until the end of the novel.
I have to say that while this novel is clearly extremely well researched and well written it did become, for me, incredibly tedious. Every part of the three's lives is described in endless detail and I got very bored in the second half.
I did enjoy parts of the story including Louisa's travels in Europe and Tobias' story, such as it is. These seemed to flow beautifully but just as I was getting interested we switch back to Anne's troubles.
The characters are also quite irritating. Anne seems to find everything dull and not worth her time, Serk is an obsessive father who drives a wedge between mother and child and Louisa begins as a spoiled child and turns into a permanently irritated adult. I have no clue why she is angry with her mother- and its not occasional, its everything her mother does or says.
I'd like to say Louisa is the least sympathetic character but, to be honest, none of them are particularly pleasant people and I found it very hard to care about any problems they encountered - and they encounter huge, life changing/threatening changes.
Thankyou to Netgalley and Farrar, Strauss & Giroux for the advance review copy.
April 6, 2025
Susan Choi is an elegant writer. In My Education, she considers the thin and blurring lines between lightning-bolt love, emotional intimacy, friendship, and sexual ardor. In her brilliant novel Trust Exercise, she dives right into how much we can trust each other’s exercise, and ultimately, how much the reader can trust the author in her narrative.
Suffice to say that this is an incredibly ambitious author, who takes her readers in unexpected directions. I was pretty sure I would love Flashlight, which promised to balance personal and historical narratives. And I did…sorta…until the love turned primarily to admiration.
The novel begins with a short story that made its debut in The New Yorker and has since been fleshed out. Louisa, a 10-year-old, went walking on a Japanese beach with her father one night. Her memory is murky: she is found half-dead on the beach and her father is missing, presumed dead. A mystery is set up, but we only get to it through a lengthy, circuitous, and sometimes overwhelmingly detailed journey.
The author spends considerable time crafting the characters and getting readers up to speed on the Korean diaspora. Serk, Louisa’s father, was born to Korean migrants – he spoke Korean at home and Japanese at school. In 1952, as an ethnic Korean he was made an alien registrant in the nation of his birth. Eventually he married Anne, an American, whose fling with a married man led to her son, Tobias, who will re-enter their lives.
And then there’s Louisa, who grows up the troubled daughter of a remote father and a mysteriously ill mother, who lives with a huge hole in the midst of her life. She does not possess any events to fill the space between stepping with her father onto the damp sand and waking up in a hospital bed; the stories of her father’s death by drowning is one she somehow both authors and received passively. As a result, she wonders: what shapes does a life take when a change takes away all the points representing events and all the lines forming stories.
Certainly, Susan Choi is an expert at a balancing act of exploring a complex history with a personal narrative that weaves its way through decades, continents, and memories. Like a flashlight, it shines its light on certain events and emotions while obscuring others and eventually widens the illumination. The role of identity remains central: who are we when we don’t really know all the details of who we are?
I am so grateful to Farrar, Straus, and Giroux for giving me the privilege of being an early reader in exchange for an honest review. I do believe that lovers of luscious prose and historical complexities will devour this book. Although it didn’t capture me as much as previous books by this author, I applaud her for spreading her creative wings and admire its scope.
Suffice to say that this is an incredibly ambitious author, who takes her readers in unexpected directions. I was pretty sure I would love Flashlight, which promised to balance personal and historical narratives. And I did…sorta…until the love turned primarily to admiration.
The novel begins with a short story that made its debut in The New Yorker and has since been fleshed out. Louisa, a 10-year-old, went walking on a Japanese beach with her father one night. Her memory is murky: she is found half-dead on the beach and her father is missing, presumed dead. A mystery is set up, but we only get to it through a lengthy, circuitous, and sometimes overwhelmingly detailed journey.
The author spends considerable time crafting the characters and getting readers up to speed on the Korean diaspora. Serk, Louisa’s father, was born to Korean migrants – he spoke Korean at home and Japanese at school. In 1952, as an ethnic Korean he was made an alien registrant in the nation of his birth. Eventually he married Anne, an American, whose fling with a married man led to her son, Tobias, who will re-enter their lives.
And then there’s Louisa, who grows up the troubled daughter of a remote father and a mysteriously ill mother, who lives with a huge hole in the midst of her life. She does not possess any events to fill the space between stepping with her father onto the damp sand and waking up in a hospital bed; the stories of her father’s death by drowning is one she somehow both authors and received passively. As a result, she wonders: what shapes does a life take when a change takes away all the points representing events and all the lines forming stories.
Certainly, Susan Choi is an expert at a balancing act of exploring a complex history with a personal narrative that weaves its way through decades, continents, and memories. Like a flashlight, it shines its light on certain events and emotions while obscuring others and eventually widens the illumination. The role of identity remains central: who are we when we don’t really know all the details of who we are?
I am so grateful to Farrar, Straus, and Giroux for giving me the privilege of being an early reader in exchange for an honest review. I do believe that lovers of luscious prose and historical complexities will devour this book. Although it didn’t capture me as much as previous books by this author, I applaud her for spreading her creative wings and admire its scope.
November 28, 2025
Glad to have finished on Thanksgiving, so I can give thanks for this book.
The tale takes us through the bonds of tribe, family, and nationality; those bonds are ugly and beautiful, cruel and kind, centering and anxiety-producing. It sets that discussion within a bigger story, that of the parting of children from their parents by governments. For me, this story was made more poignant by living in America today, when the government callously divides children and parents every day. Yes, this is less egregious than kidnapping and disappearing people as the North Koreans did with Japanese people living in Japan, but it is on the same spectrum.
I found it so interesting that in a story about the bonds created by association with others, Choi wrote about profound loneliness. Tiny bits of that loneliness were dispelled by connecting with others, but often others' existence made the loneliness more profound. This loneliness, exacerbated by connection, is never more true or well-exemplified than in the story, from beginning to end, of two of the main characters, Anne and her daughter, Louisa.
I don't want to talk much about the book, but I will say that we begin with the partings of children and parents. At the outset, little Louisa and her professor father, Serk, are taking a nighttime stroll on a beach in Japan. Serk, a green card-holding American who grew up in Japan but is an ethnic Korean, is teaching in Japan for a year. The move is initially hard on Louisa, who is of mixed-race, and staggeringly difficult for Anne who is of European descent and has spent just a bit of time outsied the US, and who starts just after arriving in Japan to show symptoms of a serious illness that leaves her nearly paralyzed with exhaustion, and which the Japanese doctors decided was all in her head. Anne's depression and illness leave her estranged from her daughter, and more estranged than ever from her husband, who is always awful to her because he has no respect. love, or trust to give. Serk disappears, and Louisa is found nearly dead from drowning. All assume he has died. Anne, now nearly unable to move, heads back to the US with an angry, confused, cruel child in tow. We also start early on with another severance of parental bonds. Anne gives birth to Tobias when she is 19. Her much older, very married, tryst-mate has her sign away all rights, and raises the child with his wife. The impacts of all of these events are profound for all concerned. Tobias' grief and trauma manifest in ways very different from Louisa's, though both choose in different ways to separate themselves from those closest to them. There are also partings of Serk from his parents and younger siblings when they choose to move from Japan ot North Korea after the end of the war, and of Anne from her parents and siblings through entropy, choices, and chance. Everyone in this book seems lost.
As mentioned, there is another story here, the story of North Korea's campaign to kidnap ethnic Koreans from South Korea and Japan. Of course, I knew about the kidnappings, but I guess I never thought about how that ugly practice destroyed the people left behind. That is beautifully handled here.
I loved everything about this intricate and powerful book. How have I managed to skip Choi's previous work? I will attempt ot correct that oversight in 2026.
The tale takes us through the bonds of tribe, family, and nationality; those bonds are ugly and beautiful, cruel and kind, centering and anxiety-producing. It sets that discussion within a bigger story, that of the parting of children from their parents by governments. For me, this story was made more poignant by living in America today, when the government callously divides children and parents every day. Yes, this is less egregious than kidnapping and disappearing people as the North Koreans did with Japanese people living in Japan, but it is on the same spectrum.
I found it so interesting that in a story about the bonds created by association with others, Choi wrote about profound loneliness. Tiny bits of that loneliness were dispelled by connecting with others, but often others' existence made the loneliness more profound. This loneliness, exacerbated by connection, is never more true or well-exemplified than in the story, from beginning to end, of two of the main characters, Anne and her daughter, Louisa.
I don't want to talk much about the book, but I will say that we begin with the partings of children and parents. At the outset, little Louisa and her professor father, Serk, are taking a nighttime stroll on a beach in Japan. Serk, a green card-holding American who grew up in Japan but is an ethnic Korean, is teaching in Japan for a year. The move is initially hard on Louisa, who is of mixed-race, and staggeringly difficult for Anne who is of European descent and has spent just a bit of time outsied the US, and who starts just after arriving in Japan to show symptoms of a serious illness that leaves her nearly paralyzed with exhaustion, and which the Japanese doctors decided was all in her head. Anne's depression and illness leave her estranged from her daughter, and more estranged than ever from her husband, who is always awful to her because he has no respect. love, or trust to give. Serk disappears, and Louisa is found nearly dead from drowning. All assume he has died. Anne, now nearly unable to move, heads back to the US with an angry, confused, cruel child in tow. We also start early on with another severance of parental bonds. Anne gives birth to Tobias when she is 19. Her much older, very married, tryst-mate has her sign away all rights, and raises the child with his wife. The impacts of all of these events are profound for all concerned. Tobias' grief and trauma manifest in ways very different from Louisa's, though both choose in different ways to separate themselves from those closest to them. There are also partings of Serk from his parents and younger siblings when they choose to move from Japan ot North Korea after the end of the war, and of Anne from her parents and siblings through entropy, choices, and chance. Everyone in this book seems lost.
As mentioned, there is another story here, the story of North Korea's campaign to kidnap ethnic Koreans from South Korea and Japan. Of course, I knew about the kidnappings, but I guess I never thought about how that ugly practice destroyed the people left behind. That is beautifully handled here.
I loved everything about this intricate and powerful book. How have I managed to skip Choi's previous work? I will attempt ot correct that oversight in 2026.
August 27, 2025
70th book read in 2025
This is the best novel I have read so far this year! It is the fourth one of hers I have read. Susan Choi has never let me down, not once. Her last two novels, My Education and Trust Exercise, made it onto my Top 25 favorite books read in a year lists. I love how she has expanded her range in each book, while always pushing the excellence of her writing and the sheer nerve of her plots to greater limits.
Flashlight is set in Japan, Korea (north and south) and America. Choi has Korean ancestry through her father, though she was born in America. She has written about Asian/American characters in other novels, but the Korean influence in this one is deep and wide-ranging.
Her characters in Flashlight are all unlikeable in one way or another. She even joked about that in an interview as being a risky move. For me, each one of them only made me more riveted to the tale. I was anxious for every one. By the end of the tale, I felt each had good reason to be the way they were, and I could not judge them negatively for their actions.
She also is quite tricky with her timelines and locations. It is a wild ride through history, wars, family separations, cultural clashes, obsessions, chronic illness and mental disturbance.
I read this with one of my reading groups and all of us were sore amazed by what we had read.
This is the best novel I have read so far this year! It is the fourth one of hers I have read. Susan Choi has never let me down, not once. Her last two novels, My Education and Trust Exercise, made it onto my Top 25 favorite books read in a year lists. I love how she has expanded her range in each book, while always pushing the excellence of her writing and the sheer nerve of her plots to greater limits.
Flashlight is set in Japan, Korea (north and south) and America. Choi has Korean ancestry through her father, though she was born in America. She has written about Asian/American characters in other novels, but the Korean influence in this one is deep and wide-ranging.
Her characters in Flashlight are all unlikeable in one way or another. She even joked about that in an interview as being a risky move. For me, each one of them only made me more riveted to the tale. I was anxious for every one. By the end of the tale, I felt each had good reason to be the way they were, and I could not judge them negatively for their actions.
She also is quite tricky with her timelines and locations. It is a wild ride through history, wars, family separations, cultural clashes, obsessions, chronic illness and mental disturbance.
I read this with one of my reading groups and all of us were sore amazed by what we had read.
October 1, 2025
a legitimate masterpiece. i want to read it all over again.
September 11, 2025
3.5, rounded up.
The last of the 2025 Booker noms for me to have read - ranked 5th.
Having not gotten along too well with Trust Exercise (I found the ending well-nigh incomprehensible!) and fearing this chunkster would both be overly political and dreary, I 'saved' it for last - so was happily surprised by how much I ended up enjoying this.
Having little interest in the disappearance and incarceration of dissident Koreans (or, let's face it, Korea in general), and though the events of the novel DO focus very much on that - I found it increasingly interesting, despite and often due to that.
Although it took me an inordinately long time to get into the novel, I raced although the final 40% in one day - which speaks for itself. I had three major issues: firstly, I found three of the four major characters to be dislikeable and disagreeable: Serk is taciturn and largely a cipher; Anne is mean and nasty; Louisa is a brat - and even Tobias initially starts out being a pain in the ass until his brain tumor removal - and then turns rather TOO saintly. It is hard for me to invest interest in or CARE about characters if there isn't SOMETHING redeemable and likeable about them. Only poor Walt and Orange Tom made my 'nice' list!
Secondly, I thought the book meandered quite a bit and could have been judiciously pruned to make it not quite such a slog; for example, we didn't really NEED 50 pages on Louisa's sojourn through London and Paris which had little to do with the main thread of the story, although I DID find that section amongst the most entertaining.
Thirdly, as suspected, once we got into the nitty-gritty of the incarceration/indoctrination sections, I rather lost interest and found it a bit predictable. But ultimately Choi redeemed herself and all in all, I am glad I read this - which I am confident I wouldn't have done without the Booker nod. I think it will and SHOULD make the shortlist - but would be a mite disappointed should it win.
The last of the 2025 Booker noms for me to have read - ranked 5th.
Having not gotten along too well with Trust Exercise (I found the ending well-nigh incomprehensible!) and fearing this chunkster would both be overly political and dreary, I 'saved' it for last - so was happily surprised by how much I ended up enjoying this.
Having little interest in the disappearance and incarceration of dissident Koreans (or, let's face it, Korea in general), and though the events of the novel DO focus very much on that - I found it increasingly interesting, despite and often due to that.
Although it took me an inordinately long time to get into the novel, I raced although the final 40% in one day - which speaks for itself. I had three major issues: firstly, I found three of the four major characters to be dislikeable and disagreeable: Serk is taciturn and largely a cipher; Anne is mean and nasty; Louisa is a brat - and even Tobias initially starts out being a pain in the ass until his brain tumor removal - and then turns rather TOO saintly. It is hard for me to invest interest in or CARE about characters if there isn't SOMETHING redeemable and likeable about them. Only poor Walt and Orange Tom made my 'nice' list!
Secondly, I thought the book meandered quite a bit and could have been judiciously pruned to make it not quite such a slog; for example, we didn't really NEED 50 pages on Louisa's sojourn through London and Paris which had little to do with the main thread of the story, although I DID find that section amongst the most entertaining.
Thirdly, as suspected, once we got into the nitty-gritty of the incarceration/indoctrination sections, I rather lost interest and found it a bit predictable. But ultimately Choi redeemed herself and all in all, I am glad I read this - which I am confident I wouldn't have done without the Booker nod. I think it will and SHOULD make the shortlist - but would be a mite disappointed should it win.
July 8, 2025
Flashlight is a family drama that shifts perspectives across time and characters, spanning decades, continents, and geopolitics. It begins with a tragedy: ten-year-old Louisa and her father Serk walk along a beach in Japan one night, with Serk carrying a flashlight. Louisa is later found on the beach, barely alive. Her father is missing and presumed drowned. The storyline relates what really happened that night and its ripple effects across decades. The family faces more than its share of challenges. I particularly enjoyed the intricate storyline and the character development. For me, the main attraction is the exploration of the historical tensions among North and South Korea, Japan, China, and the US. The first third of the book requires a bit of patience. It takes time to set the stage, but once it starts coming together, I read the last two-thirds straight-through. It is difficult to say much about the storyline without spoilers, but the writing is stellar, and I would not be surprised to see this book nominated for literary prizes.
August 15, 2025
Flashlight relates the story of a man, Serk, who returns to the country of the his origin, Japan, with his American daughter and wife. Serk's parents are Korean, so Serk in some ways is a man of three countries (Japan, Korea, US) and in other ways a man with no country. The story of this family is meticulously detailed, and when Serk's parents return to North Korea, without him, there are ramifications both large and small.
I want to give this book 4 stars. I really do. But I just can't. It's so overwritten. There's like ZERO space for the reader, and I don't care if you are writing romance or historical fiction, please leave something for my own brain to fill in.
That all being said, Choi sure can craft a beautiful SENTENCE. This book is filled with very specific details, each evoked with perfect words. I admire that immensely. It cannot be easy to write 450 plus pages and have each sentence be like artwork. So hats off to her talents.
But storytelling requires more suspense, and even though there were some quite harrowing scenes, I never really felt the suspense viscerally. By the end, I really wanted to skim. I resisted the urge, but I just wanted to be done.
Another thing I really did enjoy about the book was the historical aspects. I didn't know much about the history of post WWII Korea, and Choi helpfully lists ten books in her acknowledgements, and I am super interested in delving into the non-fiction that she references. I am always appreciative if I learn something new from fiction - - whether it's about history or the human condition or something else. This book was a winner from that aspect, but I probably won't be running to read more from this author.
I want to give this book 4 stars. I really do. But I just can't. It's so overwritten. There's like ZERO space for the reader, and I don't care if you are writing romance or historical fiction, please leave something for my own brain to fill in.
That all being said, Choi sure can craft a beautiful SENTENCE. This book is filled with very specific details, each evoked with perfect words. I admire that immensely. It cannot be easy to write 450 plus pages and have each sentence be like artwork. So hats off to her talents.
But storytelling requires more suspense, and even though there were some quite harrowing scenes, I never really felt the suspense viscerally. By the end, I really wanted to skim. I resisted the urge, but I just wanted to be done.
Another thing I really did enjoy about the book was the historical aspects. I didn't know much about the history of post WWII Korea, and Choi helpfully lists ten books in her acknowledgements, and I am super interested in delving into the non-fiction that she references. I am always appreciative if I learn something new from fiction - - whether it's about history or the human condition or something else. This book was a winner from that aspect, but I probably won't be running to read more from this author.
July 26, 2025
Continuing to read novels eligible for the upcoming Booker Long list, I just finished the lengthy FLASHLIGHT by Susan Choi. Interesting that my 2 favorite book critics tend to somewhat disagree in their literary opinions on it.
Sam Sacks in Wall Street Journal calls it "the first major American novel to be published this year" while Ron Charles in Washington Post gives it Three stars here on GR and mentions that "some pages could be reduced to one sentence".
I tend to agree with the latter. While the swirling plot line manages to include lots of geopolitical history and brings together many threads in a surprising conclusion, i think the character descriptions went on past their welcome to this reader. Several are so unlikeable they are downright uninteresting, especially at the depths and lengths to which the author takes us.
This could possibly make the Booker Longlist because of it unusual plot, but I don't think it will go further, causing the weary judges to reread the the 400+ pages. Somewhat well done but TOO MUCH in my opinion! 3*
Sam Sacks in Wall Street Journal calls it "the first major American novel to be published this year" while Ron Charles in Washington Post gives it Three stars here on GR and mentions that "some pages could be reduced to one sentence".
I tend to agree with the latter. While the swirling plot line manages to include lots of geopolitical history and brings together many threads in a surprising conclusion, i think the character descriptions went on past their welcome to this reader. Several are so unlikeable they are downright uninteresting, especially at the depths and lengths to which the author takes us.
This could possibly make the Booker Longlist because of it unusual plot, but I don't think it will go further, causing the weary judges to reread the the 400+ pages. Somewhat well done but TOO MUCH in my opinion! 3*
June 21, 2025
My first Susan Choi and it didn't disappoint. It reminded me a bit of Elif Shafak: she takes a topic of interest and then weaves an intricate plot with around it, criss-crossing continents, spanning decades, and at its heart an intriguing mystery.
'Flashlight' revolves around a dramatic event where little Luisa's father, an American immigrant of mixed Korean-Japanese descent, disappears on a beach in Japan. It is assumed he drowned but his body is never found. All kinds of subplots keep the reader guessing what on earth has happened, and in the process we learn more about Japanese-Korean post-war relations.
It works well on audio too as it is plot-based.
'Flashlight' revolves around a dramatic event where little Luisa's father, an American immigrant of mixed Korean-Japanese descent, disappears on a beach in Japan. It is assumed he drowned but his body is never found. All kinds of subplots keep the reader guessing what on earth has happened, and in the process we learn more about Japanese-Korean post-war relations.
It works well on audio too as it is plot-based.
October 28, 2025
A favorite of this year, it's easy to see why this is on so many awards lists. Although it starts as a slow burn, it picks up and gathers speed as it continues. Spanning decades, the story spools out unrelentingly, with complicated characters and twists in plot unforeseen.
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