The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See

Title: The Island of Sea Women

Author: Lisa See

Read by:  Jennifer Lim

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Length: Approximately 13 hours and 22 minutes

Source: Review Copy from Simon & Schuster.  Thank-you!

The Island of Sea Women is a riveting 20^th century family saga about forgiveness.  This novel / audiobook is destined to be on my top ten reads of 2019 list.

Young-Sook is a young Korean woman growing up on the island of Jeju which lies between Korea and Japan.  Her mother is the chief of their tribe of all-female divers.  Jeju is a matriarchal society where the women work all day diving for rare specimens from the sea to sell, while the men look after the children.  Young-Sook is a “baby diver” and is learning how to become a skilled diver like her mother when double tragedy strikes.  Helping her through all of life’s turmoil is her best friend Mi-ja.  Mi-ja is known as the daughter of a Japanese collaborator, but having Young-Sook and her mother’s acceptance helps her to navigate through her difficult life on the island as an orphan living with an unloving aunt and uncle.

As Mi-ja and Young-Sook grow older, they have remained close, but ultimately, they are driven apart.  What could make two such close friends become enemies?

The story also would flashforward to the future where an elderly Young-Sook is grappling with changes that have come to the island as one of the only haenyeo left.  While haenyeo used to retire at 50, there are no longer any young haenyeo and just elderly women that hold onto the tradition.  When an American family visits the island to ask questions about the past, Young-Sook has to face her demons and her choices.  Will Young-Sook be able to come to terms with the heartache of the past?

I loved the Island of Sea Women.  The women and their culture were vividly drawn in this novel.   The loved the characters.  The two parallel stories were beautifully woven together for a wonderful conclusion to this story. I didn’t know anything about this island, and my knowledge of the Korean War is very limited.  This helped to fill in the gaps for me. I’ll admit that one part of this novel had me loud sobbing on my drive to work.  I wonder what cars passing me thought?  It was horrifying, but the crux of the novel and beautifully written.

Narrator Jennifer Lim did an excellent job of bringing the characters to life.  I really enjoyed listening to this audiobook.

Overall, The Island of Sea Women is historical fiction at it’s best – heartfelt, riveting, and a great way to learn history that you may not know about otherwise.