Book Review: The Stone Home by Crystal Hana Kim

Rating: 4.25⭐️

“I am on a peninsula, or to be more precise, the southern half of a peninsula broken in two. But in my mind, I am the land itself. I watch the waves, and when the tides come near, I will them to retreat, retract into their uncontained bodies.”

Daegu, South Korea, 2011: Forty-six-year-old Eunju is visited by Narae, a Korean American woman in her thirties, who has come to return an item of hers that was in the possession of her recently deceased father Sangchul. Narae also expresses her desire to know more about her father’s life in South Korea and how he came to be in possession of something that belonged to Eunju. The narrative follows Eunju as she shares her story with Narae detailing a traumatic history she shares with Sangchul from three decades ago when they were both teenagers and inmates at The Stone Home, a state-sanctioned reformatory center.

Inspired by true events, The Stone Home by Crystal Hana Kim is an intense and incredibly moving coming-of-age story that sheds light on a dark period in the history of South Korea. Written in lyrical yet powerful prose, the story alternates between past and present timelines – the present timeline focusing on Enju’s interactions with Narae and past events presented from the perspectives of Eunju and Sangchul in alternating chapters. The author presents an unflinching look into the horrifying conditions and human rights violations in reformatory centers that housed women and children rounded up off the streets, labeled as “vagrants” in need of rehabilitation. Detainees were subject to forced labor, barbaric punishments and unimaginable abuse in the hands of those responsible for running the institution and fellow inmates who were charged with supervising others. Eunju’s trauma has followed her into her adulthood - evident in how she struggles to frame her thoughts while recollecting the truth of her experiences in The Stone Home, where she, then only fifteen, and her mother were forcibly detained. Sangchul’s story is one of personal loss, disillusionment, and transformation - trapped in an environment that promotes violence and cruelty Sanchul struggles to preserve his humanity in the face of devastating loss and pressure to conform to what the governing authorities expect of him. The author is brutally honest in her depiction of the dynamics within the center– the friction and rivalries, the power play, the moments of empathy and solidarity between the detainees and the difficult choices Eunju and Sangchul and others have to make in order to survive in a system designed to break them down.

I always appreciate fiction that sheds light on stories and historical facts that were previously unknown to me and this novel is no exception. The story features a large cast of characters, each of whom has a distinct role to play in the story. My only niggle is that I wish we had gotten a bit more information on the events that transpired during the gap years, between past and present timelines including the fate of some of the supporting characters.

Please read the Author’s Note where she briefly discusses the historical context of this story and the people places and events that inspired this novel, In reality, these homes were part of a state-sanctioned strategy in a time of major political changes in the years leading up to the 1988 Olympics intended to clear the streets of those deemed unwanted including political protesters, the homeless and the disabled among others.

Given the subject matter, this is not an easy read but it is definitely an important story that needs to be told and shared and talked about.

Many thanks to the author and William Morrow for the digital review copy via NetGalley and the gifted ARC. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.