Lisa See is a good storyteller. Her books always transport you to a far away place and time, and The Island of Sea People is no exception.
This story follows young Korean women who harvest the sea by free diving, a specialized and harrowing skill. We see the story through back and forth flashes from Young-Sook, following her from the 1930’s through the 2000s.
Jeju island is not untouched by the aftermath of WW 2 or the Korean War. As a matriarchal society, the island feels every heartache and loss personally. A woman’s life is hard here, and the life of free diving is not for the faint of heart.
A beautiful historical novel that made me do outside reachearch when done. I had to know more about the lives of women like Young-Sook and her best friend Mi-Ja. A book that makes you smile and cry at the same time is a job well done.
An excellent pick our book clubs, we will definitely have many copies on hand!

It seems impossible that Lisa See can continue to write amazing novels, The Island of Sea Women could actually be her best one to date. This extremely well researched novel takes place on the Island of JeJu in South Korea. It is a novel of intense friendship, hardship, war, love and loss. Haenyeo are sea women who risk their lives daily to provide food and an income for their family’s by diving down into the sea. It is fascinating to read about role reversals between men and women beginning in the 30s and continuing for decades. It is a time when women were the ones to make a living supporting their families while men stayed home to watch the children and cook. The political unrest through the Korean War and the 4.3 Incident is difficult to read about and will haunt you. The Island of Sea Women comes out March 5th. It is a must read in 2019.

When I saw that Lisa See had a new novel I was thrilled to receive a copy. Her writing is beautiful and she brings all her characters to life for the reader. The Island of Sea Women has it’s setting on the Island of Jeju in Korea. The time frame begins with the Japanese occupation in 1930 and continues up to modern times. The two main characters are Young-sook and Mi-ja. Two little girls who are very different but whose love and friendship binds them together.
The girls are both trained to be haenyeos. These are women who can dive deep into the ocean to fish for sea creatures. They develop an amazing lung compactly and can hold their breaths for long periods of time and they dive in cold winter weather without hypothermia. The island is known for the women working and the husband staying home and caring for the children and cooking.
Mi-ja and Young-sook’s lives are intertwined from childhood on. They both suffered hardships and tragedies and experienced a devastating event that strained their relationship.
The characters are fictional but the events that occurred from the Japanese occupation and the Korean War, with American troupes occupying the island, did actually occur. The book was fascinating and I recommend it to all Lisa See’s fans and to anyone who enjoys historical fiction.
I received an Advanced Reader’s copy from the publisher and Netgalley. My review is unbiased.

Lisa See brings the reader to Jeju in Korea before and after the split into North Korea and South Korea. The Island of Sea Women is a very moving story about the friendships of the women divers who are the workers in the family while the men stay home and take care of the children. We also experience the pain of war and the toll war takes on the physical and emotional state of the residents of this island. The lives of the women divers is touchingly described so I felt that I could truly understand about how they worked and related with each other. I will definitely recommend this book to my book clubs.

Lisa See is a treasure and her books are always a pleasure for me to read. I look forward to a new book from her with anticipation. She writes some of the best historical fiction I have ever read and I have learned so much about different Asian cultures and traditions while enjoying her beautifully crafted stories. The prose is lyrical and entrancing and I love it!

This book is set on the island of JeJu in Korea before and after it was split into North and South. The focus is on the lives of Young-sook and Mi-ja who are Haenyos (women divers who support their families by deep-diving in the sea with no equipment and collecting food to sell and to eat while their husbands stay at home with the babies). They are best friends and as close as sisters. But when horrible troubles strike Korea something happens that tears a rift in their friendship.

The characters are so realistic and the descriptive writing so very immersive that you are pulled into the story like you are there and are feeling what the characters feel. There is both joy and sadness in this book. Some of the horrors endured on this island are unimaginable to me.

I highly recommend this book as well as all of Lisa See's works. I will read anything she writes with pleasure!

Thanks to Lisa See and Scribner through Netgalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Once again Lisa See brings us a compelling story of friendship and love and of a matrifocal society, set in a place and time with which many readers will be unfamiliar. Many of her characters come to life while others remain more mysterious, and although those mysteries underlie the meaning of much of the book, they aren’t as well developed as one might wish, especially as the biggest mystery is revealed. Still, See has a way of spinning a tale that sucks in the reader and keeps her there until the end. I would have preferred that her rather long Acknowledgements section have been divided into two, one that acknowledged the people who gave her extraordinary assistance and one that was a more traditional bibliography, so that those of us interested in reading further about one or more aspects of Jeju’s society, culture, or history, would be able to find those references more easily.

The incredible story of the heroic Haenyeo sea women divers of the Korean island of Jeju and the horrors they faced at the hands of the various countries that occupied this small island. Generations of women free divers under freezing water conditions dove every day for hours to collect the sea's bounty and provide for their families. In their unusual culture, the men stayed home and watched over the young ones and cooked, while the women of the family from teens to the elderly would dive in the "wet fields" and tend to the "dry fields". The money they earned would be used to send the men of the family to school. The Haenyeo were very well respected and lived by a very strict code. Two of these women became friends when they were very young just beginning as "baby divers" and stayed the best of friends until tragedy and war forced them apart. The determination, family loyalty, work ethic and challenges these women faced and the hardships they endured makes for a fascinating story and one that only Lisa See can tell so well. She is a master at bringing the reader into a world so unlike my own and yet the characters are always those that you can identify with and learn from. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

Tremendous historical research of a culture most of us never knew existed by a talented and well-known author. The subject of a matriarchal society was fascinating as well as was the historical background leading to the division of Korea. I love it when I can read a novel that also educates me. Thank you Ms. See and Net Galley.

I loved this! I just recorded an episode of What Should I Read Next, airing February 26, were I recommend this book as a multi-generational family saga that's perfect for fans of Pachinko, that illumines a place and time we likely didn't learn about in history class.

This story of a matriarchal society on an island off the coast of Korea is fascinating, one that takes you into a world that was little known about and what happened there was even less known about. We are taken to Jeju where the women dive for fish and vegetation while the men tend to the children. This saga takes place from the 1930's up, until Japan leaves Korea after WWII and the country is split in two. Within this framework is the story of friendship, of Young-Sook and Mi-Ja. These sea-women divers ("haenyos") give us a glimpse of what it was to live through those times...before modernization, the hazards of sea diving, and the politics, intrigue as well as the historical significance that led us to our current era They were deep sea divers going 65 ft. deep to harvest sea urchins, abalone, octopus, shellfish and more. Through their work, they kept their families alive from whatever income they made from selling their harvest.

Living under the heel of Japanese colonialism, through WWII and then a country divided by the 38th parallel, these women had the strength of endurance. Their lives, never easy, their work in the "dry" fields tending small parcels of land and then "wet" fields as divers...they were in constant motion. Danger and peril were their companions, especially when diving. Yet, that was what they knew, what they were drawn to, not only because that was all they had, but the sea represented life...their life.

I have long been a fan of Lisa See, this is my 7th book written by her. She never disappoints! Her research impeccable, her writing is intense and emotional. This book is captivating and a must read for fans of historical fiction...it is also an opportunity to visit other cultures. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of reading any of Ms. See's novels, you don't know what you are missing. Highly recommended.

My thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow. It has taken me some time to process this book. This book by Lisa Sea is much heavier than her previous book that I had read, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane.

This is a long book that is full of details about an area of the world that I was not familiar with but even more with a period of time that I had never heard. But it is also a story of friendship and family.

I was first intrigued by this book because of the haenyeo. I knew nothing about this practice or of these women. I found it fascinating that the women of the island of Jeju were the providers for their families while their husbands stayed home to take care of the children. What the haenyeo are able to do defies what our bodies are made to withstand.

I had never heard of the 4.3 Incident a.k.a. Buckchon Massacre. The facts and details of this time are hard to even wrap my mind around. I don't enjoy reading stories like this but I believe it is critical for us to know about events that have happened so we can attempt to prevent them in the future.

I fear I can't do this book justice. I finished it last week, and I've been thinking about my review everyday since. I've talked about the book with everyone: my husband, my co-workers, my students, my best friend, my mother. Why? Not just because it's a good book, but because it has something for every one of them.

For my husband: a beautiful story of the world beneath the sea
For my co-workers: the tragic story of the 4.3 Incident, which none of us had ever heard of
For my students: the empowering history of the haenyo, the amazing female collective of divers who supported the village with, essentially, their will
For my friend: the story of friendship and what it means to be a true friend
For my mother: the story of the power of a mother's love, as well as the story of a matrifocal society that calls to mind the goddesses of Avalon

I will read this book again and again.

“As the Korean saying goes, *Haenyos* do the work of the dead in the land of the living”.
“Every woman who enters the sea carries a coffin on her back. In this world, the undersea world, we tow the burdens of a hard life”.

Women harvest together, sort together, and sell together. The sea itself is communal.

With no breathing equipment, the deep-sea diving Korean women (*Haenyos*), hold their breath for two minutes, diving 65 feet deep to harvest seafood: abalone, shellfish, sea urchins, octopus, conches, sea slugs, sea cucumbers, oysters, and squid.

Years ago, Haenyos officially retired at age 55. Today, it’s hard to find Haenyos under the age off 55.
In recent years, their numbers are decreasing dramatically. It’s estimated that the haenyo will be gone in twenty years unless more women step forward.

Diving as these women do can be very dangerous. Strokes are common with years of diving.
Dr Shin, ( a minor character), says: “You Haenyo learn from your mothers and grandmothers, but what they taught you is the worst thing you can do. All those short breaths, followed by a deep dive, where you hold your breath the entire time, and then the quick rise to the surface. And then you do it again and again and again? It’s terrible and very dangerous”.
Air-Bubbles can get into the women’s veins and lungs and cause brain damage.

One of the characters, *Yu-ri* - did have an accident. “Yu-ri went into the sea one person, and came out another”.
Another character died in the sea. Two tragedies early in the storytelling....
Yet...Haenyeo - female divers in the Korean Province of *Jeju*, are known for their strength, their independent spirit, their iron will and determination. Their identity was strongly associated with diving. The dangers didn’t influence their thinking. The sea was their life!

Originally, diving was an exclusively male profession. By the 18th century, women divers outnumbered the male divers.
Gender roles were reversed. Since women divers were the primary breadwinners - their husbands took care of the domestic needs: he looked after children, did the shopping, and cooked the meals.

Ritual foods....
“Soup with titlefish, White radish, and seaweed, a bowl of seasoned bracken, turnip and green onion buckwheat pancakes”.
Or....Black pig grilled with soy paste and cabbage kimchi.
Or.....Sea urchin soup. .....etc.

The HISTORICAL ‘FACTS’ were FASCINATING to me. I was naturally curious about the extraordinary diving women - ( their culture, their relationships with their mother’s, grandmothers, husbands, and their respect for the sea), the island itself: *Jetju* - the history between the Japanese and Koreans - and the horrific Bukchon Massacre.
Lisa Sea brought awareness to devastating historical events that were essentially kept secret for years - Japanese rule, resistance, and retaliation. A riot spread like a forest fire.....
In the same way author Tatiana de Rosnay - in “Sara’s Key”, exposed secrets that the French had hidden ( tried to keep secret), - that France participated in roundups - French police knowingly sent Jews to the gas chambers to Auschwitz. .....
Lisa Sea exposed a very dark time in Jeju’s history - (tried to keep secret).
American soldiers discovered 97 bodies that were killed and buried by the government. They also encountered police who were executing 76 villagers. Between 14,000, and 30,000, people died as a result of the rebellion.

The FICTIONAL STORY .....centered around a friendship between two girls ....both Haenyo divers - their coming of age together - with their trials and tribulations started out interesting. ( both from very different backgrounds: both independently interesting females), but didn’t always hold my interest. I felt ‘their’ story was was ‘literary-ordinary’. It wasn’t awful....but ‘common’ storytelling.

I have no idea - how history and fiction work together. I read a great quote from another book reviewer not long ago: she enjoyed the facts of the story - the fiction - and not knowing the difference between either.
I thought that was GREAT insight.... with an overall great reading experience.

For me - I ‘was’ aware of what was FACT and what was FICTION.
I often don’t care if the history is perfect. If I’m enjoying the story and the characters, I’m simply enjoying the book.... but this time the HISTORY was my favorite.

I found the history fascinating, and interesting, .....
The Haenyos are BEAUTIFUL WOMEN - inside and out......with AMAZING PHOTOS that can be found online. The older women are women, I would enjoy sitting with sharing tea.....( get to know them more).
The women’s languages interested me - their dispositions - work ethics- etc.
“ The Villiage of Widows”.....was a fascinating chapter in this book.

I wanted to know more about role of the village leaders, their resistance to traditional education, ( and why THE SEA trumped everything else in their lives).....when often they were left with physical pain from decades of the water pressure....to their ears, joints - headaches and even painful hips from the “Tewak” That carry.

A Tewak is a flotation device about the size of a basketball that sits at the surface of the water with a net hanging beneath it to catch the harvest. Its HUGE ....( see photos online)
I liked learning about a vocal practice the women did called “Sumbisori”. It’s a breathing technique used by whales and seals. The diving women practiced too as it allowed them to dive deeper below sea level.
I was also interested in political upheavals. They were gut wrenching: I learned a lot.

My only - ‘slight’ - criticism was the fictional story. It was ‘fair’ for me. Good...just not over-the-top extraordinary. Doesn’t really matter - as I got what I wanted from this book - An awakening to new history .... which I’ll still be interested in - years from now. Lisa Sea gave me ( and I believed), other readers a great gift with “The Island of Sea Women”.

I also agree with the reader who said.....”I’d read the phone book if Lisa Sea wrote it”.
ME TOO!

Sincere thanks to Scriber Publishing, Netgalley, and Lisa Sea

This novel is set on the island of Jeju, off the southern coast of Korea. It follows best friends from very different backgrounds, Young-sook and Mi-Ja, and the group of women who dive with them. On Jeju women divers are the breadwinners, and the men take care of children. Mi-ja and Young-sook’s friendship seems unbreakable until a horrifying experience changes everything. Lisa See is a phenomenal writer, and the research she does is unequaled. (I’d never even heard of this island, the divers, and the disturbing history; reading this book prompted me to read more about the events described.) There were two quotes I particularly liked: When Young-Sook consults with the village shaman, she is told,” You are not being punished for your anger. You’re being punished by your anger,” and when Young-sook thinks of cautionary advice she has given to her children, she realizes that “sometimes everything you do is pointless and as ineffective as shouting into the wind.” Lisa See has created unforgettable, nuanced characters who perfectly personify the novel’s themes of friendship, loss, forgiveness, and love.

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See is the story of a girlhood friendship crushed and buckled by shifting political and cultural sands.

Set on a small volcanic island in Korea, and spanning from colonialism under the Japanese through the post-WWII division of the country and the resulting purge of Communist sympathizers in the South, the novel is a dazzling exploration of a little-known culture.

And it is also a testament to the strength of women.

In the 1930s, orphaned Mi-ja, daughter of a Korean who collaborated with the Japanese under colonialism, was sent to live with her aunt and uncle on the island of Jeju. Young-sook, a daughter descended from generations of haenyeo women who support their families by free diving to harvest the seas, befriends Mi-ja. Young-sook's mother teaches Mi-ja and Young-sook the traditional skills to become a haenyeo.

The women led hard lives of toil, but were proud of their work and contribution. While the sea women culled their "ocean fields" and tended their "dry fields" of sweet potatoes, the menfolk watched the kids and prepared the evening meal, spending their free time in talk. Life was a simple cycle. The girls embrace this life and future.

But the life the girls hope for is under duress. During WWII the resources of Jeju are confiscated for the Japanese war effort, resulting in starvation. Mi-ja is forced into marriage with a collaborator with the Japanese, while Young-sook remains in her village, married to a childhood friend. The women drift apart as truths remain unspoken and assumptions lead to prejudice and bitterness that lasts Young-sook's lifetime--until Mi-ja's granddaughter arrives, determined to tell Mi-ja's story to Young-sook.

What I loved about this novel is what I love about the best Historical Fiction: through sympathetic characters and an engaging storyline, history comes alive and I gain insight into the past.

But I didn't realize that after WWII, with Korea divided against its will, the Soviets in the North, and America in the South, each led by puppet presidents, resulted in such horrible violence that was unchecked by America. There are scenes in the book that rivals any horrors I have read in history.

The statistics, presented in the Acknowledgments, are staggering.

See informs us that Jeju's population of 300,000 was decimated by about 10%, with another 80,000 become refugees. Hundreds of villages disappeared. Talk about this dark time was banned for fifty years.

Under See's capable hands, the story is not weighed down by her research into her subject. She weaves the facts and history through the action.

See has a huge following and I expect The Island of Sea Women to become as popular as her earlier novels. It would be an excellent book club pick.

I received a free ebook from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

The Korean island of Jeju is known for haenyeo – all-female diving collective. And that’s what this story brings. It is immersed in rich culture, where roles of men and women are reversed: women being providers and men taking care of the children and household.

The story begins in early 1930s with two young girls.

Young-sook with her mother and grandmother support the family, while the father takes care of the younger siblings.

Mi-ja loses both her parents and lives with her aunt and uncle, who mistreat her. To mollify her hunger, she steals potatoes on the fields of Young-sook’s family. She gets caught by the mother, who realizes girl’s hunger. The mother lets Mi-ja work along them in order to earn her share of food.

Thus, begins the friendship of both girls. One has rich imagination; the other is skillful in knitting and tending work required for livelihood.

Mi-ja used to live in the Jeju City. So she is familiar with electricity, lights, radio, cars, roads, which Young-sook is unfamiliar with. She can’t even comprehend playtime. “Who had interest in games that weren’t teaching you something practical…”

When girls are nine years old, there is an anti-Japanese demonstration against unfair labor practices planned island-wide. Grandmother tells the girls the stories of her grandmother and her grandmother and so on. They are told that the outside represents danger. They’ve been struggling with Japanese for centuries. Then, the girls are involved in the march.

After a few years of learning how to dive, at the age of twelve, the girls are taught how to reap underwater plants without damaging their roots, just as they have been doing in the dry fields. Thus, begins their journey of becoming haenyeo.

At the age of sixteen, they sign up for summer jobs as haenyeo, taking them to China, Japan, and mainland Korea.

At the age of twenty-one, they go to Vladivostok in Soviet Union, where the pay is the best.

When they come back from Vladivostok, they find out about their prearranged marriages. Mi-ja’s marriage takes her back to the city of Jeju and Young-sook stays in her village.

Right after WWII and Japanese colonization, Koreans have great hopes for independence. But Jeju people are suspicious of American’s who take place of Japanese and try to bring American democracy. Jeju people don’t want two countries of north and south. They want one country without interference or influence from a foreign power. This leads to Jeju uprising known as 4.3 Incident (April 3rd Incident), also known as Jeju massacre.

The story is very engaging (the first two chapters might be confusing, but it all starts with the third chapter). It is rich in traditions characterizing specifically the island of Jeju. The time period involves Japanese colonialism, the Korean War and 4.3 Incident.

You guys may know that The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane was one of my favorite books of 2017. So I was so excited to get this book approved on #netgalley!
🌊
Wow did this book open up my eyes to historical events that I did not know about. See uses a dual timeline, flashing back following Yong-Sook’s life being a sea diver on the matrifocal island of Jeju off of Korea. Yong-Sook also has a very close friend Mi-ja, who is like a sister to her growing up. But things change quickly as they approach marriageable ages and America gains control of Jeju after a Japanese occupation of the island. This book broke my heart a few times but I’m so glad that I read it.

Lisa See has written a moving novel detailing the lives of Young-sook and Mi-ja on the island of Jeju in Korea. Part of a matrifocal tradition, the women work as divers called Haenyeo, while the men stay back with the babies. The women form tight bonds, as the bond between Mi-ja and Young-sook until historical forces as well as deep misunderstandings test their friendship. Details about the Japanese control of the island,independence after WWII,then the American occupation during the terrible 4.3 incident, killing over 30,000 from Jeju, illuminates the troubled history of this island. I highly recommend this novel, particularly if you like reading about other cultures and their traditions.

Lisa See doesn't disappoint her fans with this saga of two young girls who form a friendship. The story takes place on an island which is a province of South Korea. I enjoyed reading and learning about the Province of Jeju, its history and politics that I knew nothing about. The book takes place in the 1930s, 1940s, and threw the Korean war. I was not aware of the hatred the Japanese have for the Koreans and vice versa. Of course, young girls don't care that one is Japanese and one is Korean, but the differences in their backgrounds lead them in different directions and force them apart despite their love for each other. It is their stories that Lisa See describes so wonderfully that is sure to make this book a favorite for historical fiction lovers in 2019. #theislandofseawomen #netgalley

I usually love See's books, but I didn't get very far with this one. It was so didactic at the beginning.