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Flashlight

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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025
LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2026
A moment is all it takes to shatter a family. The echoes last a lifetime...

One evening, ten-year-old Louisa and her father, Serk, take a walk out on the breakwater. They are spending the summer in a coastal Japanese town. Hours later, Louisa wakes on the beach, soaked to the skin. Her father is missing: presumably drowned.

This sudden event shatters their small family. As Louisa and her American mother return to the US, Serk's disappearance reverberates across time and space, and the mystery of what really happened that night slowly unravels.

‘Ferociously smart and full of surprises’ Eleanor Catton
‘A family epic… Engrossing’ Telegraph
‘Big, bold and surprising’ Guardian

‘Gorgeous... Almost impossibly heartbreaking’ New York Magazine

‘Illuminates the buried secrets of the human heart’ Oprah Daily
(C) Susan Choi 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

 20th Century Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction United States World Literature Imperial Japan

Critic Reviews

A rich generational saga that teems with intelligence, curiosity and, in terms of reading, sheer pleasure. Like the flashlight of its title it cast an evasive, variably illuminating beam…. It surely cannot be overlooked by this year’s Booker judges
Choi is one of contemporary literature’s great demolition artists, and her emotional foundations hold. She can build as well as she detonates… Like the best of those early-00s novels, Flashlight is all kinds of big: capacious of intent and scope and language and swagger
Engrossing... Choi is an astute, convincing writer…Flashlight [is] a rewarding read
An ambitious generational saga meets mystery thriller that spans several decades and countries… The story begins with a disappearance, then ripples out from there for a compulsive read
Choi’s startling, bristling characters power this journey, which plays in the reader’s mind with cinematic intensity
In this superbly crafted book, the fraught geopolitics of family life — the official secrets, the acts of espionage, the diplomatic failures — are set against the intimacies, grievances, conflicting memories, and unmet needs of national allegiance. Ferociously smart and full of surprises, Flashlight is thrilling to the last (Eleanor Catton, author of Birnam Wood)
Flashlight is instantly bewitching: a mysterious family tragedy whose solution reaches beyond psychology into geopolitics. Susan Choi’s fictional investigation reveals a writer at the height of her spectacular powers (Jennifer Egan, author of The Candy House)
Flashlight is a sensitive familial portrait, rigorous in its scope and complexity of feeling. Susan Choi is a master of rendering relationships with utter particularity (Raven Leilani, author of Luster)
I devoured Flashlight. Once I started reading, I couldn’t put it down, and once I finished, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. The plot builds like a symphony rising to a crescendo, full of surprise and wonder. The story is as astonishing as it is entirely plausible. Susan Choi clearly knows well the fraught geopolitics of Korea and Japan, and did her homework (Barbara Demick, author of Nothing to Envy)
In a brilliant feat of storytelling, both intimate and sweeping, Susan Choi has created a profoundly moving epic that blends a tender family portrait with a haunting examination of the Korean diaspora. Flashlight is that rare novel that has everything I want in fiction: gorgeous writing, fascinating characters I fell in love with, an immersive, addictive story with an ending that made me gasp, then cry. I’m in awe (Angie Kim, author of Happiness Falls)
All stars
Most relevant
Such unlikeable characters but that’s the point
She tells the story of the history of Korea/Japan with such grace
Absolutely loved

A 5 star read for me

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A vividly imagined complex story, distinct characters, each with their own issues and baggage, leading to a deeply satisfying read.
Another well deserved Booker short list nominee for 2025. This is one of my two favorites from the list.
I highly recommend this for anyone looking for engaging fiction aimed at adults.

Deeply satisfying

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Great story. Love Anne - think she's a great character, good twists for Serks tale, the daughter's depiction is spot on!

Booker prize worthy

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While I found the antipathetical nature of the three lead characters difficult to engage with initially, at some point that switches and I was drawn in to their moving story. Stick with it.

Slowish start but stick with it

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The strong depth of the story and characters kept me captivated from beginn to end. So real.

Intensely captivating from beginning to end.

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