The Mermaid from Jeju

Description

In the shadow of World War II, Goh Junja—one of Jeju’s famed haenyeo deep-sea divers—begins to claim her own future, only to have it shattered by a devastating loss at sea. As she grieves, her family is scattered and the island’s rhythms are disrupted by a dangerous new political reality, forcing Junja to confront love, survival, and the cost of loyalty in a world that won’t pause for heartbreak. Inspired by true events on Korea’s Jeju Island, this lyrical historical novel blends sea-magic wonder with intimate, character-driven storytelling as Junja and those she loves are pulled into shifting alliances and rising peril. With Sumi Hahn’s entrancing, dreamlike prose and vivid attention to rural tradition, the story asks what it means to keep loving—and to keep living—when history turns violent.

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