The Bookish Mindset

Overview:

Title: Pachinko
Author: Min Jin Lee
Published: February 2017
Genre: Historical Fiction
Themes: Family, Heritage

One sentence summary: Pancinko is a long and sprawling literary historical novel focusing on just one family and the generations that follow.

One sentence review: An utterly beautiful book, spanning generations, for fans of Homegoing and more historical fiction.

Review:

I mean, where do I start with this one? What can I say that hadn’t already been said?

Pancinko is a long and sprawling literary historical novel focusing on just one family and the generations that follow. Each chapter is a different POV and it’s a beautifully interwoven story. There’s so much family, politics and history in here, there’s almost too much to tell you about without spoiling the plot. I went in blind and I’d definitely recommend it that way.

The writing is so beautifully fluid, it really just flows off the page and is a pleasure to read, despite the heartbreaking content. I want to say it’s also syrupy and sweet and flows too, and I know they’re contradicting metaphors but just trust me. The pages will fly by and it was hard to put down.

If I tell you the plot of a 500+ page book is slow then it might but you off but I don’t want it to. Everything is written with the upmost of precision and care. Just trust me and don’t be put off by its size.

Have you read Pachinko? Let me know!

If you’d like to get yourself a copy, you can support local bookshops and my work while doing so on Bookshop.org with this link here or on audio with Libro.fm here.

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And don’t forget to check out my other blogs and reviews – you can find books with similar themes in the same folder link below, or click back onto blogs to see the whole offering.

Last updated 20/07/2026