The Island of Sea Women surprised me. I didn’t know I wanted to know about the Korean women of Jeju island. I did. I didn’t know that in learning their history and about their work, I would connect with and love them so much. I did. 

This story is about friendship, motherhood, communication, survival, forgiveness, worship, traditions, gender roles, really all things living and dying. And it’s worth discovering the story, word by word, for yourself. 

Lisa See is talented at research and writing. She crafted an amazing story and characters that I would expect to see in historical records (fictional, yet they are so real). Their stories will be with me for a long time. 

“How different it is with friendship. No one picks a friend for us; we come together by choice. We are not tied together through ceremony or the responsibility to create a son; we tie ourselves together through moments. The spark when we first meet. Laughter and tears shared. Secrets packed away to be treasured, hoarded, and protected. The wonder that someone can be so different from you and yet still understand your heart in a way no one else ever will.”

“A good woman is a good mother.”

“Every mother must leave her children to work, and every mother suffers, but we do it.”