a collection of seven stories about the lives of women in south korea, their relationships, struggles, mental health, and daily lives. it also teaches the readers bits about korean history and politics. my favourite was the title story, shoko's smile. it follows the narrator whose family accepts an exchange student from japan called shoko. the narrator's family, especially her grandfather, connects with shoko deeply. the grandfather kept on sending letters to shoko even after she left.

after a while, when they didn't know where shoko was anymore, the narrator goes on a trip to find her and is shocked at the life shoko is living now. both the narrator and shoko thought they'd grow up to live more special lives, but that didn't happen for either of them.

it really touched me. 
my second favourite was the second story, called xin chào, xin chào, depicting the relationship between a korean family and a vietnamese family. the characters once again made me emotional, and i thought the political commentary on the vietnam war was insightful. i loved the author's writing style throughout this whole collection and her stories really hit me emotionally. i absolutely adore this ♡