Have you ever fantasized about going to an island and starting a new life--Brenda Paik Sunoo and her husband did just that when they left Southern California for Jeju Island off the tip of South Korea. Real life isn’t paradise, though, and the dark history of Jeju mirrors some of Brenda’s own losses. This is a lovely book filled with wonderful encounters, moments of self-examination and spirituality, and the amusing?but sometimes frustrating?quirks of rebuilding a traditional stone house. If you loved A Year in Provence or the fictional Stones for Ibarra, Stone House on Jeju Island is a must-read.
--Lisa See, New York Times bestselling author of The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, Shanghai Girls, and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. Her next novel, The Island of Sea Women, takes place in Jeju Island.
Every now and then you are blessed to read a book that simultaneously lifts and quiets your soul, that makes you feel that you are a better person for having turned its pages. Ms. Sunoo’s tale is told with great simplicity, honesty, and depth. This is the work of a quiet master. I was touched to read it. I am sure I will not be alone.
--Noah benShea, philosopher and international best-selling author of We are All Jacob’s Children and Jacob the Baker
Brenda Paik Sunoo’s book Stone House on Jeju Island documents her transition to her ancestral homeland. It is poetic, touching, funny, insightful, inspiring, and, thanks to her full-color photographs, beautiful.
--Paola Gianturco, author of Wonder Girls: Changing Our World and Grandmother Power?A Global Phenomenon
A wonderfully charming, insightful, and hopeful book about possibilities. I am not likely to build a traditional stone house in a coastal fishing village near the Yellow Sea, so instead I will follow Brenda Paik Sunoo?a wise and lyrical guide. This is the best of travel books, intimate and compelling, with a dash of adventurous home construction!
--Sharman Apt Russell, winner of the John Burroughs Medal, author of the forthcoming Within Our Grasp: Feeding the World’s Children for a Better and Greener Future (Pantheon Books, 2020)
Sunoo challenges us to reimagine our definition of “home.” This smooth and lyrical storytelling of a Korean American’s search for her ancestral roots reminds us that home is in our heart and spirit. She is the quintessential example of a transnational human being of the 21st century who knows no boundaries and invites us in for a peek.
--Kenyon S. Chan, Chancellor Emeritus of University of Washington, psychologist and former editor of Rice Magazine
An extraordinary book, wise and wonderful. Brenda Paik Sunoo uses her gifts as a writer and visual artist to piece together a tapestry showing how to take risks as a senior couple and be fully present in each moment. It is Sunoo’s poignant love story about creating a new and healing life in one of Jeju Island’s traditional fishing villages. Inspired by the granny free divers, she envisions a journey of aging purposefully while “finding the time to slow down and inhale the luster of another full moon.”
--Judith Van Hoorn, PhD, former Peace Corps volunteer in Korea, Professor Emerita at the University of the Pacific, past president of the American Psychological Association Division of Peace Psychology
This book intimately weaves together the Korean American author’s personal experiences of settling and finding consolation on Jeju Island with sketches of the island’s history, culture, and lifestyle. There’s a rush of publications on Jeju lately, but only a few fully capture the island’s charms from a stranger’s perspective. This book is Brenda Paik Sunoo’s second book on Jeju to follow Moon Tides, and as a Jeju Islander myself, I applaud her affection for the island.
--Kang Young-pil, executive vice president of the Korea Foundation