Pachinko
In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a crippled fisherman, falls for a wealthy stranger at the seashore near her home in Korea. He promises her the world, but when she discovers she is pregnant--and that her lover is married--she refuses to be bought. Instead, she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle, sickly minister passing through on his way to Japan. But her decision to abandon her home, and to reject her son's powerful father, sets off a dramatic saga that will echo down through the generations. Richly told and profoundly moving, Pachinko is a story of love, sacrifice, ambition, and loyalty. From bustling street markets to the halls of Japan's finest universities to the pachinko parlors of the criminal underworld, Lee's complex and passionate characters--strong, stubborn women, devoted sisters and sons, fathers shaken by moral crisis--survive and thrive against the indifferent arc of history.
Where Pachinko keeps showing up
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Books in conversation with Pachinko
A few of the closest reads from our full list.
What you might want to know about Pachinko
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
In early-1900s Korea, a young woman named Sunja agrees to marry a kind minister rather than ruin her family with another man's child. Her decision threads four generations through Japan's pachinko parlors.
Pachinko is fictional but built around the real history of Korean Japanese (Zainichi) families across the 20th century. Min Jin Lee researched the period extensively over decades.
Yes. Apple TV+ released two seasons of Pachinko in 2022 and 2024. The show is widely considered an exemplary adaptation, staying close to the novel while expanding visual scope.
Pachinko was written by Min Jin Lee, published in 2017 by Head of Zeus.
Pachinko is 512 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Pachinko takes most readers 8 to 11 hours to finish.
Pachinko is a standalone novel by Min Jin Lee, not part of a series.
Pachinko is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
