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    A Study Guide for Sook Nyul Choi's "Year of Impossible Goodbyes"
    A Study Guide for Sook Nyul Choi's "Year of Impossible Goodbyes"
    A Study Guide for Sook Nyul Choi's "Year of Impossible Goodbyes"
    Ebook43 pages45 minutes

    A Study Guide for Sook Nyul Choi's "Year of Impossible Goodbyes"

    By Gale and Cengage

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    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for Sook Nyul Choi's "Year of Impossible Goodbyes," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Novels for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Novels for Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateJun 15, 2016
    ISBN9781535843423
    A Study Guide for Sook Nyul Choi's "Year of Impossible Goodbyes"

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      Book preview

      A Study Guide for Sook Nyul Choi's "Year of Impossible Goodbyes" - Gale

      09

      Year of Impossible Goodbyes

      Sook Nyul Choi

      1991

      Introduction

      Sook Nyul Choi's Year of Impossible Goodbyes is an autobiographical novel about the author's escape from North Korea. Winner of the 1992 Judy Lopez Memorial Award, Year of Impossible Goodbyes is narrated by the nine-year-old Sookan, who is of Korean heritage. For as long as Sookan can remember, the Japanese invaders have occupied her country and have attempted to strip away all aspects of Korean culture. Sookan's father and older brothers have not had contact with Sookan; her youngest brother, Inchun; and her mother in several years. In order to survive, Sookan's mother has been forced to run a sock factory in a building on her property. The Japanese soldiers demand a certain production quota each day. If Sookan's mother does not meet it, her food rations, which are already skimpy, are cut back even further.

      In time, a series of dramatic events changes Sookan's life forever. Her grandfather dies, which causes her mother to fall into a debilitating depression. Everyone's spirits rise when World War II ends, but more tragedy lies ahead. Year of Impossible Goodbyes, selected by the American Library Association as a notable book in 1992, provides an insider's glimpse of North Korea, a country that has since become one of the world's most secretive societies.

      Author Biography

      Sook Nyul Choi was born in 1937 in Pyongyang in what is now North Korea. Like the young character in her novel, Choi fled the hardships of the Communist takeover of North Korea by escaping to South Korea when she was a young girl. When Choi was twenty-one, she emigrated to the United States, where she then attended Manhattan College, in New York. After college, she worked for a brief time for her husband, a Korean businessman. When her husband died, Choi became a teacher, working in New York's public schools. After twenty years of teaching Choi retired and devoted her time to her writing.

      Since all of Choi's novels are based on her personal experience, her books can be read as a journey through her life. Year of Impossible Goodbyes was Choi's first novel, published in 1991. The story covers her incredible escape to South Korea. In Choi's second novel, Echoes of the White Giraffe (1993), the protagonist, Sookan, is a teenager. The story is set in South Korea and portrays the invasion by North Korea, as supported by Russia and China, into the lower portion of the Korean Peninsula. Once again, Sookan and her family are forced on the run. Gathering of Pearls (1994) is the last of Choi's trilogy and follows Sookan as she

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