A New York Times Top Ten Book of the Year and National Book Award finalist Pachinko is an extraordinary epic of four generations of a poor Korean immigrant family as they fight to control their destiny in 20th-century Japan ( San Francisco Chronicle ). NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2017 * A USA TODAY TOP TEN OF 2017 * JULY PICK FOR THE PBS NEWSHOUR-NEW YORK TIMES BOOK CLUB NOW READ THIS * FINALIST FOR THE 2018DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE* WINNER OF THE MEDICI BOOK CLUB PRIZE Roxane Gay s Favorite Book of 2017 Washington Post NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * #1 BOSTON GLOBE BESTSELLER * USA TODAY BESTSELLER * WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER * WASHINGTON POST BESTSELLER There could only be a few winners and a lot of losers. And yet we played on because we had hope that we might be the lucky ones. In the early 1900s teenaged Sunja the adored daughter of a crippled fisherman falls for a wealthy stranger at the seashore near her home in Korea. He promises her the world but when she discovers she is pregnant--and that her lover is married--she refuses to be bought. Instead she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle sickly minister passing through on his way to Japan. But her decision to abandon her home and to reject her son s powerful father sets off a dramatic saga that will echo down through the generations. Richly told and profoundly moving Pachinko is a story of love sacrifice ambition and loyalty. From bustling street markets to the halls of Japan s finest universities to the pachinko parlors of the criminal underworld Lee s complex and passionate characters--strong stubborn women devoted sisters and sons fathers shaken by moral crisis--survive and thrive against the indifferent arc of history. *Includes reading group guide*