Acclaimed fiction writer Susan Choi joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss her new novel, Flashlight. Choi talks about the opening incident, in which a girl goes for a walk on the beach in Japan with her father only for him to disappear, presumably drowned. Choi explains the novel’s relationship to a short story she published in The New Yorker in 2020 and how the father’s past emerged as she worked on the book. She reflects on his childhood as an ethnic Korean raised in Japan in the 1940s, the difficult choices Koreans in Japan faced as Japanese occupation ended and Korea split into North and South after World War II, and the state of affairs today, as South Korea transitions to new leadership. She reads from Flashlight. 

To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/.

This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, and Hunter Murray.

Selected Readings:

Susan Choi

Flashlight

“Flashlight,” by Susan Choi | The New Yorker 

Trust Exercise 

My Education

A Person of Interest

American Woman

The Foreign Student

Others

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