free life

The first winning novel of the 2022 "Diaspora Literature Award" in Bucheon, South Korea

National Book Award winner Harkin looks America in the eyes,

A realistic portrayal of the American dream and reality of an immigrant family.

Praising the important mission of mankind with poetic tenderness——

Respond to the countless fleeting noises in daily life with serious creation.

"Freedom means nothing to you if you don't know how to use it."

When Takeo was studying abroad in the 1980s, he decided to stay in the United States because of the Tiananmen Incident. After he brought his wife and children to live with him, the family was able to freely choose their lifestyle, but they had to interrupt their studies due to language and financial pressure. He never gave up writing poetry, writing while working odd jobs. With great difficulty, he and his wife Pingping finally saved enough money to buy a Chinese restaurant and saw their life gradually getting back on track. However, the debts and hardships seemed to be endless.

The families in the book have to leave their stable and familiar environment and find themselves in a strange country without relatives and friends. They have to learn to be independent again, try to make ends meet, and seek acceptance in their new country. Is freedom illusory? Why does material reality bind life? What is the price of freedom? This is Ha Jin's first work that puts aside Chinese themes and truly faces immigrant life. The novel spans twelve years. Takeo changes from an international student to a chef and experiences the most difficult and lowest struggles of immigrant life. However, his spiritual partner is Frost, Whitman and Auden. After negotiation, reconciliation and compromise between ideals and reality, Ha Jin creates another world that is different from daily life. In a symbolic sense, he creates free poetry and rebuilds his personal life independently of political ideology.

"As an immigrant, Takeo is different. He has to go through the transformation that it takes two or three generations for ordinary immigrants to complete. At a spiritual level, Takeo and I have something in common. We can accept loneliness and failure, and we also long to go through two or three generations of immigrants. The journey can only be completed.”──Ha Jin