The Hive and the Honey by Paul Yoon
THE 100 MUST-READ BOOKS OF 2023 by Time Magazine #36
The seven stories in Paul Yoon’s absorbing collection span centuries of the Korean diaspora, from a Korean settlement in east Russia to an upstate New York town. Throughout, Yoon details fully realized and flawed characters attempting to wade through the complexities of immigrant life, including a 16-year-old boy searching for his father, a maid looking for the son she left behind in North Korea, and a couple working at a corner store in the U.K. Through sharp and lyrical prose, Yoon asks urgent questions about what it really means to belong somewhere. —Annabel Gutterman