Read by E. J. Koh

A tale of deep bonds to family, place, language―of hard-won selfhood told by a singular, incandescent voice. After living in America for over a decade, Eun Ji's parents return to Korea for work, leaving fifteen-year-old Eun Ji and her brother behind in the family's new California home. Overnight, Eun Ji finds herself in a world made strange in her mother's absence. Her mother writes letters over the years seeking forgiveness and love―letters Eun Ji cannot understand until she finds them years later hidden in a box. The letters lay bare the impact of her mother's departure, as Eun Ji gets to know the woman who raised her and left her behind. Eun Ji is a student, a traveler, a dancer, a poet, and a daughter coming to terms not only with her parents' prolonged absence, but her family's history: her grandmother's Jun's years as a lovesick wife in Daejeon, the horrors her grandmother Kumiko witnessed during the Jeju Island Massacre. Where, Koh asks, do the stories of our mothers and grandmothers end and ours begin? How do we find words―in Korean, Japanese, English, or any language―to articulate the profound ways that distance can shape love? The Magical Language of Others is a fearless and poetic mind grappling with forgiveness, reconciliation, legacy, and intergenerational trauma―conjuring an epic saga and love story between mothers and daughters spanning four generations. A Note on Translation1234567891011121314151617181920 "A tremendous gift…from a tremendously talented writer." "A coming-of-age story, it brings us through scenes that read like elegant fairy tales." "[A] stunning memoir." "Koh's narration of this lyrical dance of language and emotion is haunting and deeply moving." "Floats stunningly through the abandonment she experienced as a teenager…[and] talks about living while excavating the troubled past and writing difficult love letters." "A masterpiece, a love letter to mothers and daughters everywhere." "A finely wrought, linguistically rich, provocative memoir." "A poignant transgenerational story of trauma and recovery in South Korea, Japan, and America." "Intimate, subtle insights about a unique mother-daughter relationship." "A beautifully crafted saga…graceful and moving." "Stunning…This memoir will pierce you." "Broke my heart…I could read this book a thousand times over." "Indisputably brilliant…a densely layered, lyrical exploration of the bonds between generations of daughters and mothers." "Give yourself over to her narrative territory and the resetting of the borders of lineage, language, and lives lost." "Koh remarkably and beautifully translates the language of mothers as the language of survivors." "An exquisite, challenging, and stunning memoir. E. J. Koh intricately melds her personal story with a broader view of Korean history. Through these pages, you are asked to experience one family's heartbreak, trauma, and complex love for each other. This memoir will pierce you." "E.J. Koh writes of the boundary, between anonymity and naming, between absence and abandonment, between cruelty and safety for four generations of mothers and daughters, each speaking with an occupied heart and crossing narrative borders between Korea, Japan, and America. As a reader, you give yourself over to her narrative territory and the resetting of the borders of lineage, language, and lives lost." "This memoir broke my heart. The tragedies that filled the lives of Koh's mother and grandmothers are woven into mythic, magic tales in Koh's hands. Only by Koh's grace and mastery are we not crushed by the stories within The Magical Language of Others. I could read this book a thousand times over."

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