Lisa See is a story teller who excels at stories about friendships between women. There are also harrowing descriptions of how Koreans lived under Japanese rule, and most brutal of all, how the Korean police massacred innocent citizens after World War II in a drive to eradicate Communist rebels. They regard it as an underwater farm which they harvestįor octopus, abalone, sea cucumbers, and oysters but they never take too much, since a farm must replenish itself. The sea is their life, the women even prefer giving birth in the sea to any place else. Passages about the lives of the sea women are mesmerizing, offering vivid glimpses into a unique culture. Young-sook’s mother, however, lets her dive with their collective and trains her in the ways of the haenyeo. Her best friend Mi-ja is an orphan who lives with an uncaring aunt and uncle because her father had been a collaborator for the hated Japanese, many in their village shun her. Young-sook is a teenager whose mother is the head haenyeo, leader of their collective and her ambition is to follow in her mother’s wake and become a diver. In 1938, Jeju and the rest of Korea are occupied by the Japanese. It was a matriarchal society, with well-established rules and traditions for how each diving collective managed itself. For centuries the female divers, haenyeo, of Jeju were the main breadwinners while their men looked after home and children. Novel that spans decades, from the 1930s to modern times, THE ISLAND OF SEA WOMEN is set on the Korean island of Jeju.

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