In Forgotten Country, Catherine Chung tells an inexpressibly beautiful story about a Korean family with a complex history... The story builds quietly, meticulously, and Chung does a masterful job of weaving the past with the present, incorporating mythology and memory in ways that both captivate and haunt * Roxane Gay, at The Rumpus *
Luminous and surprising.... Chung brings a gentle, special gravity to this Korean family's tale of endurance... Forgotten Country is an impressive, memorable debut * San Francisco Chronicle *
In her gorgeous debut, Chung offers a heartbreaking story about sisters, family, and keeping traditions alive * People magazine *
Catherine Chung's wonderful first novel is a moving and deeply personal story of a family caught between two very different countries and very different lives * Alison Lurie *
It is a rare novel - debut or otherwise - that can sing at once with such tenderness and ferocity, with such intense feeling and exquisite restraint. Forgotten Country is just that book, poetically crafted, shimmering with hard-won emotion, and wholly absorbing. A superb performance * Chang-rae Lee *
A heartbreaking debut novel that will leave you quietly shattered in its wake. Forgotten Country is an exquisitely rendered account of a Korean immigrant family divided by two sisters, two countries and a curse that spans generations. Catherine Chung has written a haunting meditation on family loyalty and the lingering legacy of war * Julie Otsuka, author of The Buddha in the Attic *
Chung delves with aching honesty and beauty into large, difficult questions - the strength and limits of family, the definition of home, the boundaries (or lack thereof) between duty and love - within the context of a Korean experience. Chung's limpid prose matches her emotional intelligence. * Kirkus Reviews (starred) *
In this beautiful debut novel...Woven with tender reflections, sharp renderings of isolation, and beautiful prose...Chung simultaneously shines light on the violence of Korean history, the chill of American xenophobia, and the impossibility of home in either country * Publishers Weekly, starred review *
Chung indelibly portrays a Korea viciously divided but ever bound to history, myth, and hope * O, The Oprah Magazine *
A] lovely, elegiac novel . . . both heartbreaking and redemptive * Boston Globe *
