Shocking, moving and beautifully written Korean woman's memoir, from abused and ostracized childhood to cathartic return to Korea as an adult.
I don't know how old I was when I watched my mother's murder, nor do I know how old I am today.' The illegitimate daughter of a peasant and an American GI, Elizabeth Kim spent her early years as a social outcast in her village in the Korean countryside.
Shocking, moving and beautifully written Korean woman's memoir, from abused and ostracized childhood to cathartic return to Korea as an adult.I don't know how old I was when I watched my mother's murder, nor do I know how old I am today.'The illegitimate daughter of a peasant and an American GI, Elizabeth Kim spent her early years as a social outcast in her village in the Korean countryside. Ostracized by their family and neighbours, she and her mother were regularly pelted with stones on their way home from the rice fields. Yet there was a tranquil happiness in the intense bond between mother and daughter. Until the day that Elizabeth's grandfather and uncle came to punish her mother from the dishonour she had brought on the family, and executed her in front of her daughter.Elizabeth was dumped in an orphanage in Seoul. After some time, she was lucky enough to be adopted by an American couple. But when she arrived in America she found herself once again surrounded by fanaticism and prejudice.Elizabeth's mother had always told her that life was made up of ten thousand joys as well as ten thousand sorrows, and, supported by her loving daughter, and by a return to her Buddhist faith, she finally found a way to savour those joys, as well as the courage to exorcise the demons of her past.
“It is astonishing that Kim has survived...All one wants for this exceptional woman is that she be granted ten thousand joys to expunge all the sorrows that have been her life's companion.”
-- THE TIMES
Elizabeth Kim's remarkable life is tragic...More harrowing than any novel. -- ARTHUR GOLDEN, author of Memoirs of a Geisha
A magnificent tribute to the power of forgiveness. -- DAVE PELZAR, author A Child Called ‘It’
Elizabeth Kim works on a San Francisco Bay Area newspaper. Ten Thousand Sorrows is her first book.
'I don't know how old I was when I watched my mother's murder, nor do I know how old I am today' The illegitimate daughter of a Korean peasant and an American GI, Elizabeth spent her early years as an outcast. Ostracized by her family and their village, she and her mother were regularly pelted with stones on their way home from the rice fields. Yet because of her mother's love and calm acceptance of their fate, inspired by her deep Buddhist faith, there was a tranquillity in their intense bond - until the day Elizabeth's grandfather and uncle came to punish her mother for the dishonour she had brought the family, and hanged her in front of her daughter's eyes. Elizabeth was dumped in an orphanage in Seoul where the orphans were neglected, deprived of all affection, and abused. After some time, she was adopted by an American couple. Brought to America, she was surrounded by fanaticism and prejudice: her strict Christian Fundamentalist parents forbade her to recall the traumas of her past, and she suffered racial discrimination at school. At eighteen she was married off to a man who turned out to be a paranoid schizophrenic. After her own daughter was born she ran away and lived in poverty and isolation with her, thus mirroring her past life in Korea. Eventually she made a career in journalism, but after her daughter grew up and left home, Elizabeth returned to Korea to exorcize the demons of the past.
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