Gwija is now an elderly woman and Jina can’t stop thinking about the promise she made to help find her brother.Įxpertly translated from Korean by award-winning Janet Hong, The Waiting is the devastating followup to Gendry-Kim’s Grass, which won the Krause Essay Prize, the Slate Cartoonist Studio Prize, the Harvey Award, and appeared on best of the year lists from the New York Times, The Guardian, Library Journal, and more. On the road, while breastfeeding and changing her daughter, Gwija was separated from her husband and son. Although a work of fiction this time, it is heavily inspired and based on the. Japan fell, Korea gained its independence, and the couple started a family. The Waiting is Keum Suk Gendry-Kims much anticipated follow up to Grass. When Gwija was 17 years old, after hearing that the Japanese were seizing unmarried girls, her family married her in a hurry to a man she didn't know. The Waiting is the fictional story of Gwija, told by her novelist daughter Jina. Her mother’s story inspired Gendry-Kim to begin interviewing her and other Koreans separated by the war that research fueled a deeply resonant graphic novel. As many fled violence in the north, not everyone was able to make it south.

It’s not an uncommon story-the peninsula was split down the 38th parallel, dividing one country into two. Keum Suk Gendry-Kim's harrowing new graphic novel was inspired by her own family history Gendry-Kim was an adult when she discovered that she had a long-lost aunt possibly trapped in North Korea.

Keum Suk Gendry-Kim was an adult when her mother revealed a family secret: she was separated from her sister during the Korean War.

The waiting by keum suk gendry kim