The Stone Home: [Audiobook]

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Description

"It is a privilege to read Crystal Hana Kim's fiction, which both edifies and enlightens." --Min Jin Lee

A hauntingly poetic family drama and coming-of-age story that reveals a dark corner of South Korean history through the eyes of a small community living in a reformatory center--a stunning work of great emotional power from the critically acclaimed author of If You Leave Me.

In 2011, Eunju Oh opens her door to greet a stranger: a young Korean American woman holding a familiar-looking knife--a knife Eunju hasn't seen in thirty years, and that connects her to a place she'd desperately hoped to leave behind forever.

In South Korea in the 1980s, young Eunju and her mother are homeless on the street. After being captured by the police, they're sent to live within the walls of a state-sanctioned reformatory center that claims to rehabilitate the nation's citizens but hides a darker, more violent reality. While Eunju and her mother form a tight-knit community with the other women in the kitchen, two teenage brothers, Sangchul and Youngchul, are compelled to labor in the workshops and make increasingly desperate decisions--and all are forced down a path of survival, the repercussions of which will echo for decades to come.

Inspired by real events, told through alternating timelines and two intimate perspectives, The Stone Home is a deeply affecting story of a mother and daughter's love and a pair of brothers whose bond is put to an unfathomably difficult test. Capturing a shameful period of history with breathtaking restraint and tenderness, Crystal Hana Kim weaves a lyrical exploration of the legacy of violence and the complicated psychology of power, while showcasing the extraordinary acts of devotion and friendship that can arise in the darkness.

Reviews

"With ferocity as well as tremendous tenderness and psychological insight, Crystal Hana Kim brilliantly bears witness to shocking state-sanctioned brutality in 1980s South Korea."

Author Bio

Crystal Hana Kim is the author of If You Leave Me, which was named a best book of 2018 by over a dozen publications. Kim is the recipient of the 2022 National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 Award and is a 2017 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize winner. Currently, she is the Visiting Assistant Professor at Queens College and a contributing editor at Apogee Journal. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her family. Jennifer Sun Bell (she/her) is an award-winning actress, singer, and voice-over actor who is passionate about giving a voice to the unheard stories of this world and of our imagination. Being mixed, Korean and American, she found there were so many silenced voices and stories that needed to be shared. A once shy girl who was once told her speaking voice was "not good" and that she should speak like she sings, she's found that no matter your sound, if you speak from your heart, your voice will be heard and will make an impact. She can be heard as bomb enthusiast Rin in Midwinter Entertainment's Scavengers, a fun singing (insert NDA) in an upcoming Dreamworks animation, and so much more she can't share just yet! She also had the pleasure of narrating some amazing audiobooks, including Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee and What's Done in Darkness by Laura McHugh. Jennifer has also worked in film/TV alongside some of the greats, like Jim Carrey and Don Cheadle.