Young-ha Kim succeeds in telling a little-known story of 1033 Korean immigrants who buy passage on the British ship Ilford to sail to Mexico, avoiding the Russo-Japanese war that claimed the Korean Empire in 1905. Asian literature is often too lyrical for me, but perhaps the translation of this work is what makes this story very believable in any language. This story is worth a read.

There are several interesting characters in this story, all who somehow gain sympathy from the reader because all somehow manage to suffer greatly. The first 1/4 of the story describes the ocean voyage; luckily the ship lands before that story gets overbearing. But none of the passenger's suffering ends when they reach terra firma. Once on land there are more obstacles to overcome, from climate to insects to some very brutal natives.

While there is a physical love story here between a poor boy and an aristocratic girl, there is love in all the main characters, even if that love is love of God, love of country, love of the class society the Koreans want to preserve once they reach southern Mexico. Various classes learn to survive having to live so closely together, and yet all suffer in the end. The dream of starting a new life in a new world never materializes for these people.

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