There was much to enjoy here, but I found I couldn't connect with it. I'd read more from this author in the future though.

In the aftermath of 2008 crisis, in a university town in the United States, Kyung Cho lives with his Irish-American wife and their four-year-old son in a house they can afford. Overburden by debt and sick with anxiety, Kyung is finally forced to consider renting out their home and moving in with his parents who live a lavish life in an affluent neighbourhood in the same town.

A Saturday morning, while Kung and his wife, Gillian, are chatting with an estate agent, Mae, Kyung’s mother, is walking toward the house, naked and battered. A tragic accident will turn Yung’s world upside down.

Shelter is an impressive debut novel. Intense and complex, unsettling and unexpected, it addresses many and difficult themes. It explores the difficulties in escaping violence and a heartbreaking childhood within a dysfunctional family. It shows what shame, desperation and hidden resentments, can drive a person to do. It illustrates that violence against women always begins with disrespecting women. Some themes, like hypocrisy and pretence, obsession with social niceties and refusal to address the real issues, resonated with me.

Jung Yun also explores how the American-raised children of immigrants are struggling to reconcile their parents’ more traditional culture and values with life in America. While they lack meaningful connections to their parents’ ‘old’ world, they find it extremely difficult to adjust to the rules and the culture of their adopted country. Continuously, they face parental criticism at home, while, in many cases, cope with bullying at school.

The first chapter of Shelter is one of the best first chapters I’ve ever read. Powerful and tense, emotional and surprising.

A family in crisis. Kyung Cho, a Korean now living in the US, has always had an uneasy relationship with his parents. When disaster strikes, things spiral out of control and the subsequent family drama is quite a riveting one. Well-plotted and well-paced, this unrelentingly dark portrait of a dysfunctional family offers little redemption and little hope. It’s a violent tale and very hard-hitting one. I found it a compelling portrait of an American-Korean family and community, narrated with psychological acuity and insight.