Min Jin Lee

Home is a name, a word, it is a strong one; stronger than magician ever spoke, or spirit answered to, in strongest conjuration.
—Charles Dickens

he peasants knew that a spoiled son did more harm to a family than a dead one,

en have choices that women don’t.

Whether China capitulated or avenged itself, the weeds would have to be pulled from the vegetable garden, rope sandals would need to be woven if they were to have shoes, and the thieves who tried often to steal their few chickens had to be kept away

This was his burden, not hers

Home is a name, a word, it is a strong one; stronger than magician ever spoke, or spirit answered to, in strongest conjuration.

—Charles Dickens

Men have choices that women don’t.”

“But a God that did everything we thought was right and good wouldn’t be the creator of the universe. He would be our puppet. He wouldn’t be God. There’s more to everything than we can know.”

Sunja, her fourth child and the only girl, and the child thrived;

f it were possible for a man and his wife to share one heart, Hoonie was this steady, beating organ