A daughter disappears and returns as a tiger. A mother’s voice compels those who hear it to speak only the truth. A granddaughter can see the dreams of others, revealing their deepest-held memories and desires. These women are all part of the same lineage, a Korean family whose lives are upended under Japanese imperialism, which unfolds on the pages of Jiyoung Han’s powerful and sweeping debut novel.

THEY WISH ON US A SECOND DEATH
by Jiyoung Han
Avid Reader, Spring 2026
(via The Friedrich Agency)

While the novel spans ninety years as one family is displaced across Asia, its beating heart is Young-Ja, who finds herself adrift and struggling to survive after her family is killed by Japanese soldiers. The gift that once brought her comfort and joy—the ability to infuse her cooking with her feelings: love, peace, delight—transforms into something more complex as she encounters the ravages of colonialism and can’t keep the tang of her sorrow from seeping into her confections. When her talent is noticed by a Korean resistance fighter, she’s taken to Manchuria where she becomes enmeshed in a network of spies at a teahouse favored by Japanese officials.

With the intergenerational sweep of Pachinko, the atmospheric magical realism of How Much of These Hills Is Gold?, and the episodic vignettes of Homegoing, THEY WISH ON US A SECOND DEATH uses elements of folklore to explore the ways colonialism forces one family—whose identity it is determined to subsume—to transform, and ultimately survive.

In Jiyoung Han‘s own words: “I am a Korean American woman who only learned as an adult about my grandparents’ experience under Japanese rule. I’ve since committed to studying this history, in part for my BA at UChicago and Master’s at Harvard. My first novel is an attempt to bring this history to life for more readers and to make amends for the ignorance of my youth.”