Song for Another Home
by Bora Lee Reed
Where to purchase: Bookshop.org
Publisher: Simon & Schuster / 37 Ink Publication
Date: July 21, 2026
What It's About
It is 1950 and the Americans have entered the war between North and South Korea. The story follows two cousins over the course of one year, told in seasons, with chapters alternating between their lives.
Oksoon is sixteen and lives in Pyongyang with her mother and older brother. Her father and oldest brother left for Seoul after the Americans arrived, when it looked like things would all be fine, looking for better opportunities. The family is waiting for them to come back. When the Chinese enter the war and the bombing starts, Oksoon, her mother, and her brother flee south. The road is long and what they find along the way is not safety.
Her cousin Junho left the family earlier, following his English teacher south in hopes of a better life. He lands at an orphanage where he becomes the letter writer, drafting appeals to American benefactors to keep the doors open and the children fed. The orphanage is always short of food, always short of money, and the director will do whatever it takes to keep her children alive.
What Stuck With Me
I have read a lot of books set in this period, and I kept waiting for the graphic details. They never came. Reed writes with restraint. It makes the book readable in a way that some war novels are not, and it loses nothing in the process. Terrible things happen in this book. You know what is happening without having every detail on the page.
The other thing I keep thinking about is the mothers. Oksoon's mother, who puts herself between her children and danger without hesitation. The director, who gives up everything that is hers for children who are not. Everyone in this book faces impossible choices, and the women carry the heaviest ones.
My Takeaway
This book gives a different perspective on a difficult time in Korean history, a time that should be remembered. If the violence of this time period has kept you away from books like this before, this may be the one to start with.
Where to Purchase
Bookshop.org. | Amazon.com. | Libro.fm
If You Liked This
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Honey in the Wound by Jiyoung Han
The Eight Lives of a Century-Old Trickster by Mirinae Lee
A note on these: Pachinko is the closest match in tone. The other two cover some of the same history but go deeper into the comfort women story, and Trickster is a darker, stranger ride altogether. Expect heavier reads.
Thank you to Simon & Schuster and 37 Ink and NetGalley for the advance copy. This post contains affiliate links.
