NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST * A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW TOP TEN OF THE YEAR * NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2017 *A USA TODAY TOP TEN OF 2017 * JULY PICK FOR THE PBS NEWSHOUR-NEW YORK TIMES BOOK CLUB NOW READ THIS * FINALIST FOR THE 2018 DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE Roxane Gays Favorite Book of 2017 Washington Post NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * #1 BOSTON GLOBE BESTSELLER * USA TODAY BESTSELLER * WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER * WASHINGTON POST BESTSELLER In this gorgeous page-turning saga four generations of a poor Korean immigrant family fight to control their destiny in 20th-century Japan exiled from a home they never knew. There could only be a few winners and a lot of losers. And yet we played on because we had hope that we might be the lucky ones. In the early 1900s teenaged Sunja the adored daughter of a crippled fisherman falls for a wealthy stranger at the seashore near her home in Korea. He promises her the world but when she discovers she is pregnant--and that her lover is married--she refuses to be bought. Instead she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle sickly minister passing through on his way to Japan. But her decision to abandon her home and to reject her sons powerful father sets off a dramatic saga that will echo down through the generations. Richly told and profoundly moving Pachinko is a story of love sacrifice ambition and loyalty. From bustling street markets to the halls of Japans finest universities to the pachinko parlors of the criminal underworld Lees complex and passionate characters--strong stubborn women devoted sisters and sons fathers shaken by moral crisis--survive and thrive against the indifferent arc of history. *Includes reading group guide*