The Interpreter A Novel

Suzy Park is a twenty-nine-year-old Korean American interpreter for the New York City court system who makes a startling and ominous discovery about her family history that will send her on a chilling quest. Five years prior, her parents--hardworking greengrocers who forfeited personal happiness for their children's gain--were brutally murdered in an apparent robbery of their store. But the glint of a new lead entices Suzy into the dangerous Korean underworld, and ultimately reveals the mystery of her parents' homicide. Suki Kimwas born and raised in South Korea and came to New York at the age of thirteen. Her writing has appeared inThe New York Review of Books,The New York Times,The Boston Globe, andNewsweek. She is a graduate of Barnard College and lives in Manhattan. 2003 Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award Winner Suzy Park is a twenty-nine-year-old Korean-American interpreter for the New York City courts. During one court case she inadvertently makes a startling and ominous discovery about her family's history that will send her on a chilling quest. Five years earlier, her parentshardworking greengrocers who forfeited personal happiness for their children's gainwere brutally murdered in an apparent robbery of their store. Or so Suzy believed. But now the glint of this new lead entices Suzy into a dangerous Korean underworld in the hope of unraveling the mystery of her parents' homicide. Then come the hang-up calls on her answering machine and the anonymous delivery of irises on the anniversary of her parents' death. Suzy tries to reach her estranged sister, Grace, only to find that she has vanished. Grace was last seen renting a boat in Montauk. As Suzy searches for clues to her sister's disappearance, she finds both trails converging to reveal a devastating new perspective on her family's secret past. A debut novel about the myth of the model Asian citizen and the dark side of the American Dream,The Interpretertraverses the distance between old worlds and new, poverty and privilege, language and understanding. "Suki Kim's debut novel,The Interpreter, is a melancholy study of a young Korean-American woman's alienation from both her Asian roots and her American environment. It's also a murder mystery. That Kim makes these two aspects of the novel work together suggests that she's a writer to keep an eye on . . .The Interpreteris clearly the work of a gifted writer."Charles Matthews,The Mercury News(San Jose) "[With] the small beautiful shiver of sadness . . . [Kim] speaks succinctly of memory, pain, isolation, and regret."The New York Times Book Review "Fascinating . . . a seductive allegory spun out in appropriately broken prose that figures translation as detective work."Los Angeles Times Book Review "More than a murder mystery . . . its fascination lies in how these traditional story lines, so often reassuring and affirming, here unsettle and disturb."The Boston Globe "We yearn for images and events that remind us of our immigrant cultures. Cuisine does it deliciously. Fashion does it whimsically. Suki Kim, in her first novel, does it with literary finesse . . . What is powerful and memorable about this book is placenot major metropolitan New York but the Korean community within it . . . Kim brings alive the wounds of the Korean immigrants, exploited by one another as they strain to make lives in this alien America. She describes daughters prevented from solid futures by the injuries of their childhoods. She presents characters one after another incapacitated by loss, incapable of love, inured to violence . . .The Interpreteris an engaging and haunt

Suki Kim was born and raised in South Korea and came to New York at the age of thirteen. Her nonfiction has appeared in The New York Review of Books and The New York Times. She is a graduate of Barnard College and lives in Manhattan.

"Fascinating. . . a seductive allegory spun out in appropriately broken prose, that figures translation as detective work." --Los Angeles Times Book Review

"[With] the small beautiful shiver of sadness. . . [Kim] speaks succinctly of memory, pain, isolation, and regret." --The New York Times Book Review

"Deftly crafted, original, and fitted together by a complex, believable and interesting character, the enjoyment is intense... . .A stunning first novel. . .In these hauntingly enthralling pages, Kim expertly snaps her debut puzzle together." --Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

“Powerful and memorable. . .engaging and haunting. . .It lingers in one's thoughts long past the last page." --Houston Chronicle

"Bold and edgy, haunting and suspenseful. In The Interpreter Suki Kim fractures the image of the happy Asian immigrant and reassembles it shard by compelling shard." --Manil Suri, author of The Death of Vishnu