A letter meant for her older sister Mina compels 105-year-old Jeonga Cha to reflect upon her past and make hasty plans to travel to the United States. Decades ago, Jeonga made a decision in the interest of her family’s reputation, sending her only son’s illegitimate child and the child’s mother to the United States – a fact that she has kept a secret from her sisters. Jeonga is the youngest of four sisters. One of her sisters, Seona, eloped with her lover and settled in North Korea, and she has not seen or heard from her in over eighty-nine years. Much has transpired in her life since then, but Jeonga has remained set in her ways. But when that decision from the past comes back to haunt her and potentially impact the lives of both her and Seona’s branches of the family, she knows that she has to take charge of the situation, right her wrongs and take responsibility for her actions. But after reaching the United States with two of her older sisters and her assistant Chohui. she meets with a fatal accident before she can share her secret and the narrative follows Jeonga as she tries to find a way to communicate with her loved ones from the afterlife.

Spanning several decades and revolving around themes of family, sisterhood, secrets, self-acceptance and forgiveness, The Apology by Jimin Han combines historical fiction and intergenerational family drama with elements of surrealism and a good dose of humor. The narrative is presented from Jeonga’s first–person perspective. I loved the premise of this novel and I found the protagonist and her sisters to be interesting characters. The bickering and banter made for some entertaining reading. The promise of a story with a centenarian main character and her family set during the Korean War was enticing. However, despite the promising premise and interesting cast of characters, I did not enjoy this novel as much as I expected. A deeper exploration of the historical context and the impact of the Korean War on the lives of Jeonga’s family was missing and I found the writing to be a tad choppy with the transitions between past and present timelines abrupt, which messed with the flow of the story as did the uneven pacing. The afterlife segment of the narrative is well - written and I appreciated the humor the author injects into the narrative as we follow Jeonga as she tries to communicate with her loved ones. Overall, while I was entertained and appreciated the underlying message of this story, I wasn’t quite invested in the characters and the unraveling of the secret as it is gradually revealed to us wasn’t quite compelling as it was initially made out to be. Having said that, I do feel the author has promise and would be eager to read more of Jimin Han’s work in the future.

Many thanks to Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley for the digital review copy. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

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Great read dealing with families, centenarians, secrets, diaspora, Asian Americans, culture, forgiveness, and reconciliation with humor. Too good to miss.

FROM NETGALLEY: This “sweeping intergenerational saga" tells the story of a pampered and defiant South Korean matriarch thrust into the afterlife from which she seeks a second chance to make amends (Kirstin Chen)—and fights off a tragic curse that could devastate generations to come.

In South Korea, a 105-year-old woman receives a letter. Ten days later, she has been thrust into the afterlife, fighting to head off a curse that will otherwise devastate generations to come.

Hak Jeonga has always shouldered the burden of upholding the family name. When she sent her daughter-in-law to America to cover up an illegitimate birth, she was simply doing what was needed to preserve the reputations of her loved ones. How could she have known that decades later, this decision would return to haunt her—threatening to tear apart her bond with her beloved son, her relationship with her infuriatingly insolent sisters, and the future of the family she has worked so hard to protect?

Part ghost story and part family epic, The Apology is an incisive tale of sisterhood and diaspora, reaching back to the days of Japanese colonialism and the Korean War, and told through the singular voice of a defiant, funny, and unforgettable centenarian. ( )

THE GOOD: Our centenarian leading lady is a hoot! And learning about her Korean culture was enjoyable.

THE BAD: The introductory section is written in very choppy, short sentences that created a stressful atmosphere that almost made me abandon the book very early. The post-death portions seem like a different book than the scenes from when our main character was alive. Pretty disjointed.

CONCLUSION: Enjoyable, but not the all-consuming masterpiece the reviews lead one to believe. ( )