“A powerful story of recovery and compassion.”
―Barack Obama (former US President)

Our story that shook hearts around the world
The birth of a new classic that transcends culture and generations!

Korean-American author Lee Min-jin's hit work, "Pachinko," has been released!

The international bestseller, Lee Min-jin's novel "Pachinko," which tells the story of a Zainichi Korean family spanning four generations, is now available to Korean readers in a new translation by Influential.
"Pachinko" is a historical novel written over 30 years by Lee Min-jin, a 1.5 generation Korean-American author. It was published in 2017 and became a New York Times bestseller.
It has been translated and exported to 33 countries around the world, and has captivated both critics and the public, being selected as a 'Book of the Year' by over 75 major media outlets, including The New York Times, BBC, and Amazon, and as a finalist for the National Book Award.
Now you can experience the new version of 『Pachinko』 (2 volumes), a sensational Korean story that brought the world to tears and established itself as a new 21st century classic.


“History has abandoned us, but that doesn’t matter.”
The epic tale of a Zainichi Korean family ignored by history

The novel unfolds over nearly 100 years, starting in Yeongdo, Busan during the Japanese colonial period and ending in Japan in 1989, at the height of its bubble economy, in Korea and Japan.
Sixteen-year-old Seonja, who lives in a shabby boarding house with her mother, Yangjin, meets Hansu, a fish broker who travels back and forth to Japan, and begins to imagine a wider world outside of Joseon for the first time. However, after having his child, she is heartbroken to realize that he is a man with a wife and child in Osaka.
Meanwhile, Reverend Isaac, who came as a guest at Seonja's boarding house, considers Seonja his destiny and proposes to her. Seonja marries Isaac and moves to Osaka to start a new life.
However, as a Korean and a woman, Seonja's life was difficult and arduous, as she had to endure discrimination and contempt and "work until she could no longer work" (p. 338) to protect herself and her family.
As we follow the turbulent family history surrounding Seonja, it naturally overlaps with modern and contemporary Korean history, including liberation, the Korean War, and division, and our hearts ache as we come into view the lives of the Zainichi (a term referring to Koreans living in Japan) that we had not known about.


The author of this book, Lee Min-jin, is a Korean-American writer who immigrated to the United States with her family when she was seven years old.
As a first-generation immigrant and history major, the author became interested in the unstable international situation and the tragedy of modern and contemporary Korean history brought about by Japanese invasion. He decided to write the stories of “people who history has arbitrarily left aside.”
However, it took a long time of 30 years from the time I first learned about the existence of Zainichi while studying history at Yale University to the publication of this book.
The author, who had met and interviewed countless people while living in Japan with her Japanese-American husband, discarded all of the drafts she had written up to that point and began writing again.
This was because I was convinced that it had to be “a story of ordinary individuals standing up to a historical disaster.”
The protagonist changed from 'Solomon', a third-generation Zainichi Korean, to 'Seonja', and the title changed from 'Motherland' to 'Pachinko'.
After extensive research, interviews, and numerous relentless revisions, “Pachinko,” a masterpiece combining the detail of a documentary with the empathy of a novel, was finally born.

“Pachinko is a stupid game, but life isn’t.”
A Silent Journey Towards a "Korean Diaspora Trilogy"

"Pachinko" is also a story about home.
Because it is a chronicle of an immigrant family that steadfastly built their home without being swayed by the great waves of history.
The author stated that the title of the book, "Pachinko," "signifies the uncertainty of life, like gambling, where the outcome is unpredictable, and at the same time, it symbolizes the tragic lives of Koreans in Japan who had to choose the pachinko business as their only means of survival in a foreign land filled with hatred and prejudice."
The author touches upon the lives of immigrants who must leave their hometown, settle down in a foreign land, and live as permanent foreigners, with his unique insight and empathetic gaze.
"Pachinko," a work that addresses all of life's issues, such as family, love, loss, and money, poses timely questions to readers living in the present age. It has emerged as a cultural icon, proving the power of storytelling to transcend generations and cultures.

This book is the second novel by author Lee Min-jin, following her debut novel, Free Food for Millionaires. She is currently working on her third novel, American Hagwon, about the Korean people's enthusiasm for education.
The author introduces these novels as a 'Korean Diaspora Trilogy'.
In the preface, “To Korean Readers,” he explains why he continues to write about Koreans, saying, “It’s because we are attractive,” and that “Koreans are worthy of being the protagonists of stories with depth, both intellectually and emotionally,” and that he wants to continue telling Korean stories to younger generations.


A new take on Pachinko, with a translation and composition faithful to the original.

Pachinko, which was introduced in Korea in 2017 and went out of print in April after the copyright contract expired, has returned to Korean readers with a new translation and design.
From the first sentence (“History has abandoned us, but that doesn’t matter”), I tried to convey the meaning of the original text more faithfully and to preserve the work’s characteristically fast-paced writing style.
Additionally, in order to preserve the structure and flow originally intended by the author, the original book's structure of three parts (Part 1 'Hometown', Part 2 'Motherland', and Part 3 'Pachinko') was followed.
To commemorate the new publication, the author's autograph and preface, 'To Korean Readers', are included here.
The author expressed his gratitude to the translator for the newly released Korean translation, saying, “Translation is the work of the angels and artists of literature,” and also expressed special affection to the Korean readers who have waited for the book.
Right now, it's time to hear our story that has taken the world by storm.

Characters

Seonja was born in the 1910s as the daughter of a boarding house owner on Yeongdo, a small island in Joseon.
Seonja, who received a lot of love from her deceased father, grows up to be a quiet but honest and strong girl.
At the age of seventeen, while helping his mother run a boarding house, he was led by fate to Japan.

Hansu is a man who followed his father from Jeju to Osaka when he was twelve years old and has achieved success by any means necessary. He is well-versed in the ways of the world and has quick judgment.
While traveling between Busan and Japan as a fish broker, he meets Seonja and is attracted to her at first sight.

Isaac, a pastor from a wealthy Christian family in Pyongyang.
He was born with a weak body and suffered from illness his entire life.
On his way to Osaka, where his older brother Joseph lives, he tries to stay at Seonja's boarding house for a while, but he collapses from tuberculosis and is stranded.

Yang Jin Seonja's mother.
Born as the youngest daughter of a poor family in Yeongdo, she worked tirelessly throughout her life after her arranged marriage to Hoon.
She runs a boarding house with her daughter, Seonja, who is the only surviving child after four births.

Hoon- i Seon-ja's father.
Despite being born with disabilities in his lips and feet, he is respected by those around him as a hard-working and honest man.
He ran a small boarding house in Yeongdo and raised his only daughter, Seonja, with great care.

Joseph Isaac's older brother.
He works at a factory in Osaka and supports his parents in Pyongyang.

Kyunghee Joseph's wife.
Born in Pyongyang, like his brothers Joseph and Isaac, they grew up close from a young age.

The first son of Noah the prophet.
Born in Osaka in the 1930s.

The second son of the hat merchant.
Mozasu is the Japanese name for 'Moses'.
Become the president of a pachinko parlor.

Solomon 's only son and the grandson of the prophet.
Born in Osaka in the 1960s.