This month our book is a brand-new book, just published on April 7. It’s called INHERITANCE and it’s a debut novel by Jane Park. INHERITANCE is a contemporary novel of a Korean immigrant family in Edmonton, Canada. Anne, the Canadian-born daughter, is a successful attorney now living in New York City who returns to rural Canada for her father’s funeral. She begins uncovering her family’s past and even her own and her brother’s experience as the children of immigrants. This book is a deep dive into the experience of an immigrant family and the complexity of relationships between children and parents, siblings, and families and their community. There are a lot of layers here. They reveal to us that those who escaped the Korean War to come to North America faced hardship, discrimination, and conflict. The backdrop is Anne’s father’s flight from North Korea during the Korean War, where he was forced to leave his father and brother. Nancy mentioned that reading this book made her realize that she is a little fuzzy on the Korean War. Linny said she, too, isn’t well versed in the Korean War, but that her father-in-law was in the Merchant Marines during the war. Nancy did a little research, and shared a summary with Linny: After WWII ended Imperial Japan’s 35 year-long occupation of the Korean peninsula. Korea was basically divided along the 38th parallel, with the Soviet Union as the protector of the north and the US of the south. On June 25, 1950, after years of Cold War skirmishes, the Northern Korean People's Army, aided by the Soviet Union and Communist China, invaded the non-communist Republic of Korea in the south. We committed our forces to assist the Republic of Korea in its defense. We provided 90% of the military personnel in the war, but were aided by the UN and allies, like Great Britain, Netherlands, Australia, and Canada. Then it was a couple of bloody years of just pushing each other around the map, concluding in an eventual stalemate. On July 27, 1953, an armistice was signed, ending organized combat operations. The conflict caused around one million military deaths and an estimated 1.5 million to 3 million civilian deaths. The excess mortality among civilians is attributed to one-sided massacres, starvation, and disease. Additionally, virtually all major cities on the Peninsula were destroyed. It’s the horror of this war that brings Anne’s parents to Canada. And, perhaps not surprisingly, Anne’s parents don’t want to talk about it at all. At the beginning of the book, Anne is talking to mom wanting to know more about her family’s history, but her mom says, “We don’t need to heal. We need to forget! Easier! Past is past. We need to move on, not go back to bad things.” But we see that what her parents want to forget is actually misshaping them. Anne doesn’t even know her father was from North Korea until after her father’s death. Linny says she wasn’t surprised that people experiencing trauma from war just wanted to forget it. But they end up stuffing those emotions down, rather than doing the hard work of working through them. Linny says we didn’t have PTSD until after the Viet Nam War. After the identification, then, that’s when we started understanding it more and identifying therapeutic approaches. Nancy notes that one of Anne’s girlfriend’s great-uncles is a Korean veteran about whom the girl just rolls her eyes and tells Anne that “He’s crazy.” Nancy notes that in 2026, she and Linny have reviewed a lot of books set in wars. Linny says she doesn’t want to talk about war things so she can understand why people who have actually been through it, don’t want to revisit it. Nancy also notes added issues of stigma, costs, and cultural taboos. Linny says that Anne’s family, in the middle of the Canadian prairies, might not even have a mental health professional anywhere nearby. Linny notes that Anne’s return home makes her face some of the ways she was raised. By the end of her time at home, she comes to the realization that she has a lot of work to do. Linny notes that as we learn about Anne’s father, we see that he deteriorates as a father as Anne gets older. He is likely facing PTSD, but also the struggles and stress of immigration, starting a new life, economic challenges, and so on. The father becomes more abusive and bullying to the family. He’s trying to keep his family together, but his actions end up breaking the family apart. Nancy believes the father is partially driven by peer pressure about what it means to be a successful man. Linny thought a lot about the cultural differences. His Korean culture is more family oriented and in direct conflict with the West’s individualistic culture. Anne’s brother, Charles, especially, was oppressed by the family expectations. Nancy thinks if he could have at least pursued the field he was interested in, he may have capitulated to the expectations, but his father told him he had to be a doctor or a lawyer. At one point, the father says to Charles, “Your life does not just belong to you. It belongs to our family.” Linny says the first-generation children have to grapple with which parts of which cultures they want to subscribe to, what they want to leave behind, and what they want to integrate. Linny notes that the one other Asian person in school would have been a good friend to Anne, but Anne could not see a way to be her friend and to fit in with the majority girls. Nancy mentions that one theme of the book is that family demands honor. One symbol of that is the knife that Anne carries. Korean noble women carried Eunjangdo and were expected to kill themselves if they were raped. To Nancy, the knife felt like a symbol that a child must die to self to honor their family. Linda notes that the knife is on the front cover illustration. Linda says the author leads us along a little regarding the use of the knife. Linda isn’t surprised Anne blocks out the trauma related to the knife. But, the trauma of the knife has terrible repercussions for the entire family. When Anne returns home, she returns as an adult and to her adult brother and mother. They each have a lot of work to do. Brother has the hard work of sobriety and becoming a father. Mom moves into finding her own voice. Anne, of course, is trying to discover who she is. Anne was a big part of moving brother and mom to healing. Charles was living with their mom who coddles him and does everything for him. Anne is sending part of her income back to her parents, and by extension, her brother. She’s upset that she’s supporting his bad choices. Linny notes that Anne is enabling her brother’s addiction by giving him money. And, of course, the mother enables the brother, too. Linda notes that Anne and her family face racism. Her schoolmates call her names. The community doesn’t frequent their store. Anne, as a girl, is perceived as less than. She has to work harder than the white boys and girls. To her credit, she does reach her goals. Additionally, her father tells her that her success reflects not only on the family, but also all Koreans, all Asians, and all Indians. That’s a lot of pressure. Linny says she knows others in minority communities who feel the pressure of this sort of representation. Linny said she liked each of the characters. She thought they were very realistic. She liked Richard, Anne’s New York City boyfriend. But Linny was pleased that they broke up because Anne needs time to figure out her own life. For our next episode, we’ll welcome Jane Park to the front porch. Jane is the author of INHERITANCE.