Pachinko

Min Jin Lee's 2017 novel begins in Korea in the early 1900s with Sunja, the teenage daughter of a fisherman, who becomes pregnant by a wealthy, married stranger and refuses to let him keep her on his terms. Instead she marries a gentle, sickly minister who takes her with him to Japan. From there the story follows her family down the generations and through much of the twentieth century, as they meet discrimination and racism as Koreans living in Japan, in settings from street markets and universities to pachinko parlors. It was a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction and was adapted as a television series in 2022.

Dua Lipa said she could not put it down despite its length and chose it for her Service95 Book Club, and it is on the reading shelf of Emma Watson's Our Shared Shelf book club. Former Westpac CEO Gail Kelly also took it on as part of her summer reading.