The Waiting

by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim, Janet Hong (Translator)

Overview

The story begins with a mother's confession...sisters permanently separated by a border during the Korean War

Keum Suk Gendry-Kim was an adult when her mother revealed a family secret: She had been separated from her sister during the Korean War. It’s not an uncommon story—the peninsula was split across the 38th parallel, dividing one country into two. As many fled violence in the north, not everyone was able to make it south. Her mother’s story inspired Gendry-Kim to begin interviewing her and other Koreans separated by the war; that research fueled a deeply resonant graphic novel.

The Waiting is the fictional story of Gwija, told by her novelist daughter Jina. When Gwija was 17 years old, after hearing that the Japanese were seizing unmarried girls, her family married her in a hurry to a man she didn't know. Japan fell, Korea gained its independence, and the couple started a family. But peace didn’t come. The young family of four fled south. On the road, while breastfeeding and changing her daughter, Gwija was separated from her husband and son.

Then seventy years passed. Seventy years of waiting. Gwija is now an elderly woman and Jina can’t stop thinking about the promise she made to help find her brother.

Expertly translated from the Korean by the award-winning translator Janet Hong, The Waiting is the devastating followup to Gendry-Kim’s Grass, which appeared on best of the year lists from the New York Times, The Guardian, Library Journal, and more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781770464575
Publisher:	Drawn & Quarterly
Publication date:	11/02/2021
Pages:	248
Sales rank:	648,318
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	16 Years

About the Author

Keum Suk Gendry-Kim was born in Goheung in Jeolla Province. She has cartooned the graphic novels Grass, The Waiting, La saison des pluies, Jiseul, Jun, The Naked Tree, and Alexandra Kim, a Woman of Siberia; the autobiographical comic The Song of My Father; the three-volume children’s comic Coquinette; the picture books The Baby Hanyeo Okrang Goes to Dokdo and A Day with My Grandpa; and the children’s book My Mother Kang Geumsun. Grass (Drawn & Quarterly, 2019) appeared on Best of the Year lists from the New York Times and the Guardian, and received the Cartoonist Studio Prize for the Best Print Comic of the Year, the Big Other Book Award for Best Graphic Novel in 2019, the Harvey Award for Best International Book, and the Krause Essay Prize in 2020.

Editorial Reviews

★ 08/09/2021

Gendry-Kim (Grass) returns with an arresting portrayal of what happened to the families that were split apart during the frenzied migration of refugees from North to South Korea after WWII. Gendry-Kim’s considerable powers as a graphic storyteller breathe life into the tragic tale of Song Gwija, who grew up during the war in what would later become North Korea under constant threat from invading Japanese soldiers. Gwija, now in her old age, begs her adult daughter Jina to help locate her lost son, and Gendry-Kim brilliantly articulates the exasperation and sense of duty that characterizes their relationship. Their present-day narrative frames Gwija’s recollections of the war. In one of the most impactful artistic sequences, she watches a group of refugees crossing the country and realizes she and her family must flee as well. From tension with other migrants to the confused horror when American jets turn their guns on the caravan, Gwija’s exhaustion is palpable. The inevitable moment she is separated from her husband and son, and her subsequent panic and loss, hits powerfully. Back in the present, Gwija’s hope hinges on a program in which select families, separated by the division of the country, can win a lottery to be reunited—if only for a limited time. Throughout, Gendry-Kim’s inky brushwork evokes a rich sense of place, from the hostile, scrubby landscape of North Korea to the crowded alleyways of modern-day Seoul. Much like Thi Bui’s The Best We Can Do, this family portrait reveals in heartbreaking detail the impacts of colonization and political upheaval that reverberate for generations. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

How can black and white drawings do this, you might ask. But maybe only black and white drawings can do this—Gendry-Kim offers us here a glimpse of the heart of a woman who has lost more than some might ever find, and who has never given up her love, if not her hope. The Waiting is a stunning achievement, and a testament to the power of her artistry. Not a line or word feels out of place.” —Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel

“The author of Grass works another miracle with this semi-autobiographical tale of a family separated by conflict... Keum takes the reader inside some of the human heart’s most inaccessible chambers, places that are all but closed to most visitors – and yet she does so almost casually, the stark economy of her drawings no guide at all to their lasting emotive power. What a talent she is.” —Rachel Cooke, The Guardian

“The Waiting... continues Gendry-Kim's unflinching portrayal of the displacement caused by war, migration, and bias.” —NPR

“The Waiting is a moving, beautifully drawn, masterfully told reflection on how history imposes itself, scatters people, and leaves so many lives unresolved.” —Joe Sacco, author of Palestine

“Affecting... Gendry-Kim’s spare, elegant panels—some composed only of dark figures surrounded by white space and outlines—suggest the perplexing ways the past empties us out.” —Hamilton Cain, Oprah Daily

“The artist’s stark brushstrokes and narrative masterstrokes make an affecting combination, as hope and heartbreak span generations.” —The Washington Post, Best Graphic Novels of 2021

“A testament to the generational familial trauma that is wrought by colonialism, political strife and war.” —Karla Strand, Ms. Magazine

“Another stunning masterpiece... Gendry-Kim’s stark black-and-white compositions couldn’t be more affecting...and prodigiously empathic.” —Booklist, Starred Review

“This family portrait reveals in heartbreaking detail the impacts of colonization and political upheaval that reverberate for generations.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“When [The Waiting's] scope shifts to the effects of war and displacement, the narrative reaches new depths and reveals unexpectedly moving notes.” —Tobias Carroll, Words Without Borders

“The Waiting suggests not only the traumas but also the mutability of history... reveal[ing] both memory and art-making as processes. Nothing is fixed, Gendry-Kim is suggesting. We only know ourselves from the bits of information we have been allowed to have.” —David Ulin, The Los Angeles Times

“Hope endures through terrible sorrows in this gloriously rendered graphic novel saga of the Korean refugee experience.” —Publishers Weekly, Best of 2021

“One of the most moving graphic novels of the year.” —BookPage

“A remarkably empathic tour-de-force crafted around testimony by Gendry-Kim’s mother and other Koreans who long to reunite with family in the North.” —Library Journal, Starred Review

“Gendry-Kim’s black-and-white art adds to the stark emotional impact of her story.” —BuzzFeed Books

“A moving and dramatic graphic novel of aging, war, family reunions, and separation.” —Asian American Writers' Workshop

“Janet Hong’s masterful translation captures every nuance of emotion, the pain and heartbreak of this history.” —Bookriot

“It’ll break your heart.” —The Toronto Star

From the Publisher

★ 10/01/2021

Gendry-Kim's follow-up to Grass (the award-winning graphic novel based on her mother's life) starts with the onset of World War II, as Korean teenager Gwija prepares to a man she barely knows, in order to avoid being forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army. Within a few years, she's the proud mother of two small children. When the Korean War begins, her family joins countless others fleeing south to escape the fighting in the north of the peninsula. At one point in the trek, Gwija stops to nurse her infant daughter and loses her husband and son in the crowd. She never finds them. Seventy years later, Gwija's daughter from her second marriage promises she'll find her long-lost older brother before her mother dies—a heartbreakingly impossible task. Gendry-Kim's masterful black-and-white drawings and innovative layouts convey an uncanny sense of longing in this unforgettable account of the Korean War's lasting impact. VERDICT A remarkably empathic tour-de-force crafted around testimony by Gendry-Kim's mother and other Koreans who long to reunite with family in the North.

Library Journal