How does Emi’s relationship with her son and daughter grow over the course of the novel? Why do you think she hasn’t told them about her family? Why do you think she changes her mind? Do you agree with her decision to tell them about her past?.Is Keiko a friend to Hana? How does Hana’s time in the brothel alter her? How do the women she meets there support one another?.

What does Jeju Island mean for each sister? How would this story be different if it were set somewhere else?

When the novel begins, Emi still lives on Jeju Island.

Why does Emi feel haunted by Hana? How does Emi remember her sister, and how does this relationship change throughout the novel?

When we meet Emi, she often dreams of a girl swimming in the ocean.

Were you surprised by the way the Japanese treated the Koreans during the Second World War? Has your understanding of the war changed after reading this novel?.

What does being a haenyeo mean to Hana? How does this identity inspire her throughout the novel? Had you heard of the haenyeo before reading White Chrysanthemum?.

How do you think Mary Lynn Bracht has achieved this? Can you think of other books where multiple narratives have worked particularly well – or badly?

Readers have said that in White Chrysanthemum they are just as engaged in Emi’s story as they are in Hana’s.

What do you think this seam of truth adds to your reading of such novels, and this book in particular?

Historical events, and war in particular, have always been fertile ground for fiction.

But pulling us back into the light are two women whose love for one another is strong enough to triumph over the evils of war. Switch-backing between sisters Hana and Emi, White Chrysanthemum takes us into a dark and devastating corner of history. Suspenseful, hopeful, and ultimately redemptive, White Chrysanthemum tells a story of two sisters whose love for each other is strong enough to triumph over the grim evils of war.The heartbreaking story of Korea during the Second World War is brought to life in this gripping, redemptive debut about two sisters. Seeing the healing of her children and her country, can Emi move beyond the legacy of war to find forgiveness? Emi has spent more than sixty years trying to forget the sacrifice her sister made, but she must confront the past to discover peace. But haenyeo are women of power and strength. There she is forced to become a “comfort woman” in a Japanese military brothel.

Until the day Hana saves her younger sister from a Japanese soldier and is herself captured and transported to Manchuria. As a haenyeo, a female diver of the sea, she enjoys an independence that few other Koreans can still claim. Hana has lived her entire life under Japanese occupation. For fans of Lisa Wingate’s Before We Were Yours and Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko, a deeply moving novel that follows two Korean sisters separated by World War II.

White chrysanthemum novel