Flashlight

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 * Financial Times *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 * Guardian *Engrossing… Choi is an astute, convincing writer…Flashlight [is] a rewarding read * Sunday Telegraph *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 * BBC, Summer Reads of 2025 *Choi’s startling, bristling characters power this journey, which plays in the reader’s mind with cinematic intensity * Daily Mail *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 WoodFlashlight 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 HouseFlashlight 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 LusterI 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 EnvyIn 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 FallsSprawling, rootless, and windswept, Flashlight is a psychologically astute and beautifully intimate examination of family tragedy, told from both the micro-perspective of domestic mundanity, and the dizzyingly wide angle of international politics. It reads like a classic, a political thriller, but also a tender portrait of three people who do not fit, yet somehow find themselves to be a family – Jenny Mustard, author of Okay DaysA shapeshifting novel that reconfigures reality at every turn, Susan Choi’s Flashlight is a powerful beam searching through the cavernous depths of alienation, of the cruel, fierce love binding a singular family, and the historical reverberations of unthinkable displacement and loss. With masterful control, Choi charts us through a journey that defies every expectation—its cumulative effect is epic, devastating, and incandescent – Aube Rey Lescure, author of River East, River WestSusan Choi casts a fascinating light on the troubled borders between identities, countries, historical periods and sometimes even her admirable sentences as she, so expertly, tells the story of a family that can’t quite find its moorings – Romesh Gunesekera, author of ReefA major world writer… Choi has a profound gift * New York Times *Choi’s style conveys that the world, even at its worst, rewards devoted examination * Atlantic *Choi’s elegant writing is evident in this ambitious tale … A propulsive story about family secrets and displacement * Boston Globe *What’s sort of amazing is that a novel with such a locomotive of a plot … could just as reasonably be described as character-driven … Choi is a writer you can trust to make the journey worthwhile. Never sentimental, never predictable, this aptly titled novel illuminates dark passages both fictional and real * Kirkus *With Franzen-esque fastidiousness, Choi unpacks each character’s backstory, exposing vanities and delusions in a cool, caustic voice, a 21st century Émile Zola * Los Angeles Times *Proves she’s a writer at the top of her game, capable of crafting a well-plotted and complex story while remaining attuned to small internal motivations, along with intersectional and cultural liminalities, those edges between surf and sand where so much violence happens, as much to bodies as to hearts, minds, and homes * Library Journal *What an outlandishly talented writer Choi is… Choi is a writer who can be trusted to have a plan, and she sews the narrative up with a conclusion that’s almost impossibly heartbreaking — about which the less said the better * Vulture *A historical events-driven door stopper that will leave readers guessing until (almost) the very end... A fictional reimagining of one of history’s darkest chapters and a sweeping, unsettling portrait of one family caught in the throes of change and torn apart by tragedy * San Francisco Chronicle *Gorgeous… As the captivating central family mystery is slowly illuminated, Choi’s prose shines with poetry and intelligence * New York Magazine *The first major American novel to be published this year * The Wall Street Journal *Will make you head spin in the best way – Dakota Johnson x TeaTime Book ClubA story that draws on geopolitics even as it obsessively returns to a single family catastrophe… Shocking – NPR’s The Book AheadSlippery and explosive * The New York Times Book Review *Flashlight is that elusive type of book that so many readers I know are always looking for: a big fat novel to get lost in – Maris Kreizman * The Maris Review *A captivating examination of family and belonging * Entertainment Weekly *Pushes the boundaries of family, ethnicity, society, country, and history by challenging, parsing, and piecing together the complicated multitudes of tangled identities… [Choi] brilliantly shines the titular flashlight on each of her characters, catching their habits and quirks, exposing their intimacies * Booklist *[An] epic, elegiac new novel * Times Literary Supplement *A meditation on identity and displacement that is full of twists and turns * Economist, Autumn Picks of 2025 *The most extraordinary book… It’s extraordinary how it all weaves together, and the ending is just unbelievable. It’s so satisfying, the ending is just heart-breaking, just stunning, it’s brilliant – Roddy DoyleExcellent … It generates deep sympathy and understanding … In the end it becomes less about the grand narratives than about what it means to be a human being – Mark HaddonYou don’t get many novels that are family dramas and geopolitical thrillers so I think that’s something to be celebrated… It is really gripping at times. There are certain revelations that leave you breathless. But it is also heart-breaking… It tore me apart – Chris PowerAn engrossing story… what Choi captures so well, even as she pushes the novel to its limits…is what it’s like to live between two worlds * London Review of Books *An excellent and impressive novel… the reveal is satisfying and beautifully worked * The Times *A novel that is about identity and history that is full of twists * Economist, Books of the Year *Choi’s great skill lies in her ability to craft the stories of Serk, his child, his wife and his countries into a compelling whole * Financial Times, Books of the Year *Sweeping and intimate, breathtakingly ambitious and thrillingly executed * Daily Mail, Books of the Year *A gripping inquiry into memory, migration and political history * i, Books of the Year *

Susan Choi is the author of the novels Flashlight, Trust Exercise, My Education, A Person of Interest, American Woman and The Foreign Student. She has won the National Book Award for Fiction, the Asian American Literary Award for Fiction, the PEN/W. G. Sebald Award and a Lambda Literary Award, and has been a finalist for the Booker Prize and the Pulitzer Prize. Flashlight began as a short story and received the Sunday Times Short Story Award. Susan Choi lives in Brooklyn, New York, and teaches in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University.