The poetic prose and the efficiency of story within the poetry makes the novel THE LIBERATORS, by E.J.Koh, feel almost dream like. 

The same way memories and history start to feel like a dream after days, months, years—Koh’s writing manages to span love, war, and 4 generations within her effervescent 220 pages. 

Koh's writing allows every reader to project their own meaning into the novel’s events. For me, I walked away feeling as if any and all deeply divided nations are actually only a reflection of the broken families and people within them. 

I am not sure who Koh would argue came first, the broken country or the broken people, but protest, war, political division and the cry for revolution all start to feel like symptoms of broken families, of opposing ideas within families, and of people internally divided over what they want versus what their ancestors may have set in motion for them. 

The actions of past generations echo throughout every character. Fathers who have walked away from their families; mothers who have endured hardship for the good of their children; families who have fled their nation in search of peace in a new country—all circle back to irreconcilable parts of the self.

I learned a tremendous amount about Korean history through these characters and their struggles. I also found myself distraught over the difficulty we all seem to have to come to terms with the many parts of ourselves, especially when they do not all add up in a tidy way. 

The Liberators tackles huge concepts but delivers with total intimacy and with space for the reader to project themselves into the story. 

No matter what your heritage or family background, you can see yourself in all of these characters. You can see how complex the political ideas continue to be, and you can challenge yourself to not only have empathy for those who think differently from you, but you can also consider that division may not be the answer no matter how broken the system or family.

It is not until the acknowledgments that Koh writes this but it feels absolutely critical to the essence of the novel:

Without love, our efforts to liberate ourselves and our world community from oppression and exploitation are doomed…things called words and what these things can do are proof of magic…My deepest hope is to understand that even if we fail, we can’t fail so big as war, and as sure as the sun rises and the world rotates, we as humans have a chance to try again.