A 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.

“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,” the book reads.

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 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 Min-jin’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.

The main characters are diverse, interesting, flawed* and basically good people. Like most people you know, they just try to keep their heads down, work to put food on the table, and hope for good opportunities for their children.(SD-Agencies)