All I can say is the book is part domestic drama, part historical fiction, and wholly compelling in its exploration of people
Literary fiction doesn’t usually come with trigger warnings, but to judge from my reaction to it, Flashlight by Susan Choi needs one. So here it is: If, before you begin this book, you are already in despair over the state of the world, perhaps you shouldn’t read it at this time. Because it will take that thought and reinforce it a million times over, leaving you in a deep depression.
On the other hand, if you decide against reading the book, you will miss out on a compelling novel that will keep you in its world long after you turn the last page, as you try again and again to parse the kind of circumstances that created the three main characters who have now taken up residence inside your head.
Serk. Anne. Louisa. I suspect these three fictional people will remain on my mind long into 2026. Which is odd, because not one of three is exactly pleasant. But they’re not evil either — they could be the neighbours you interact with, but don’t consider friends. Shaped by the circumstances of their various upbringings, they go about their lives without much desire for deep relationships, even with each other, even though they are a family of three.
Serk is the ultimate outsider. Born Korean in a Japan that looked down on people from his country, his natural brilliance and ambitions constantly thwarted by his nationality, he somehow makes it to the US where he teaches at a university but always remains an alien wherever he is.
Anne, who marries Serk, is American. She is at home in her own country, but her childhood circumstances make her alien to family life.
Louisa, their daughter, never fits anywhere — not with her own family and never at school. Only when Serk is forced by the university authorities to shift to Japan on a teaching exchange programme, does Louisa find a brief period of belonging. But this is shattered when, one night, on a walk with her father on a beach, something happens that she can’t remember and her father vanishes, presumed drowned. And then life changes completely for each one of this family of misfits.
I know my description of the plot is nowhere powerful enough to explain the trigger warning I started with. But it’s impossible to go into greater detail without giving away the whole story. All I can say is the book is part domestic drama, part historical fiction, and wholly compelling in its exploration of people. ‘Humanity’, in this book, means the very opposite of what dictionaries say it means.
Flashlight
By Susan Choi
Penguin
pp. 445; Rs 899
