I loved this book, which concerns the lives of two people, deeply impacted by horrors of war, in this case, the Korean War. There are other characters in the book, some of them quite major and others not, all of which are keenly depicted. I found myself alternately rooting for and despising the main characters. They are very, very real, and I was absolutely compelled by their trying to make their way through a life and make sense of themselves and their worlds in the aftermath of a war in which each had witnessed and participated in unspeakable acts of casual callousness at best, and deliberate cruelty at worst. Writing all of that, I feel this book might sound ponderous and slow, and depressing. Somehow, it is none of those things. It is, of course, awful to read of our capacity as humans for cruelty, but there is so much to love here in witnessing the struggles of these imperfect characters. The writing is gorgeous. I don't have my copy in front of me as I write this, but then I don't need to it remember one completely breathtaking sentence, just two words long: "Life gathers." Exhilarating reading. I was swept away.