Susan Choi, a Korean-American author, has been shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize in the UK with her novel “Flashlight.” During a book talk at the Korean Cultural Centre in London, she discussed her work, stating that she’s interested in writing about characters whose lives are shaped by uncontrollable external circumstances.
The novel “Flashlight” explores the decades-long story of a family consisting of Seok, a Korean-Japanese who experiences invisible discrimination and moves to the U.S. where he becomes a professor, his American wife Anne, and their daughter Louisa. Susan Choi finds fascination in the “geopolitical events” which uncontrollably shape lives, influenced by her father, a first-generation Korean-American.
Choi explains that setting the protagonist Seok as a Korean-Japanese offers another perspective on the complex Japan-Korea relations in the early 20th century. Additionally, she highlights the challenge of dealing with North Korean issues in her work due to the lack of reliable information from the region.
Susan Choi is the granddaughter of Choi Jaeseo, a first-generation English literary scholar and critic, and daughter of Choi Chang, a mathematics professor in Indiana, born to a Korean father and Jewish-American mother. The Booker Prize winner will be announced at a ceremony in London, with the recipient awarded £50,000 (approximately 9,600,000 KRW).