‘ I’ve never felt more foreign than I have this summer, with this child at my side.’ Crisp and enigmatic, Shua Dusapin’s writing glows with intelligence. The Pachinko Parlour is a nuanced and beguiling exploration of identity and otherness, unspoken histories, and the loneliness you can feel amongst family. And as Mieko and Claire gradually bond, a tender relationship growing, Mieko’s determination to visit the pachinko parlour builds. Shiny is still open, drawing people in with its bright, flashing lights and promises of good fortune. When they first arrived in Japan, they opened Shiny, a pachinko parlour. They fled the civil war there over fifty years ago, along with thousands of others, and haven’t been back since. The plan is for Claire to visit Korea with her grandparents. Claire finds herself dividing her time between tutoring twelve-year-old Mieko, in an apartment in an abandoned hotel, and lying on the floor at her grandparents: daydreaming, playing Tetris and listening to the sounds from the street above. Women’s calves, men’s shoes, heels trodden down by the weight of bodies borne for too long. I lie on the floor and gaze out of the window.
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