This Burns My Heart - by Samuel Park (Paperback)

About the Book

Caught between tradition and modernity in 1960's South Korea, a woman in an unhappy marriage struggles to give her daughter a good life.

Book Synopsis

In this "extraordinary" (Chicago Tribune) and compelling love story set in postwar Korea in the 1960s, an unhappily married woman struggles to give her daughter a good life and to find love in a society caught between ancient tradition and change.

On the eve of her marriage, beautiful and strong-willed Soo-Ja Choi receives a passionate proposal from a young medical student. But caught up in her desire to pursue a career in Seoul, she turns him away, having impetuously chosen another man who she believes will let her fulfill her dreams. Instead, she finds herself tightly bound by tradition and trapped in a suffocating marriage, her ambition reduced to carving out a successful future for her only daughter. Through it all, she longs for the man she truly loves, whose path she seems destined to cross again and again. In This Burns My Heart, Samuel Parks has crafted a transcendent love story that vibrantly captures 1960s South Korea and brings to life an unforgettable heroine.

Review Quotes

"This Burns My Heart is a delicate yet powerful story of love, loss, and endurance. The emotional world of the heroine, Soo-Ja, is beautifully realized; I found myself caught up in her dramas from start to finish." --Sarah Waters, author of The Little Stranger and Fingersmith

"This Burns My Heart is quietly stunning--a soft, fierce story that lingers in the mind. Samuel Park is a deft and elegant writer; this is a very exciting debut." --Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler's Wife

"An incredible read . . . I don't want it to end. I love it!" --Hoda Kotb, Today

"An understatedly brilliant tale . . . Through Soo-Ja's eyes, Park beautifully evokes 1960s war-torn South Korea." --Audrey Magazine

"Extraordinary . . . A page-turner of a book . . . South Korea provides not only the backdrop of Soo-Ja's story, but also the context for Park's novel, which spans the decades after the Korean War to the beginning of the country's economic boom. In a sense, Soo-Ja's story parallels South Korea's development from a poor, struggling state to a gleaming Asian tiger." --Chicago Tribune

"Memorable . . . Atmospheric and exuberantly filmic . . . a simple but visceral romance in a refreshing Korean setting." --The Miami Herald

"Park does a good job of bringing the rapidly changing South Korea of the 1960s alive. As cities sprout from beanfields and rickshaws give way to Kias, the world around Soo-Ja and her family is changing at a frightening speed. . . . I especially recommend this novel to readers who were intrigued (as was I) by Lisa See's Dreams of Joy, set in postwar China. The contrast is fascinating." --The Christian Science Monitor

"Vivid...atmospheric . . . Park's descriptions of antigovernment clashes and the martyrdom of a 12-year-old boy, in particular, provide eerily prescient reverberations of recent clashes in Syria." --Boston Globe

"Writing prose with the beauty of poetry, Samuel Park traces a young woman's journey to hard-won maturity, alongside the meteoric rise of post-war Korea, in a novel which shines with eloquence and wisdom." --David Henry Hwang, Tony-Award winning author of M. Butterfly

About the Author

Korean-American author Samuel Park was born and raised in Sao Paulo, Brazil until the age of fourteen. His novel "This Burns My Heart" was chosen as a Best Book of 2011 by Amazon, "Kirkus Reviews," and "BookPage." It was named one of NPR s Freshest Reads and "Today" s Favorite Things, and has been translated into four languages. He is an assistant professor of English at Columbia College and lives in Chicago. Visit Samuel Park at SamuelPark.com."