The Korean Cultural Centre UK (KCCUK), in collaboration with the Korea Publication Industry Promotion Agency (KPIPA), hosted a special literary event titled "Afternoon with Susan Choi" featuring the acclaimed Korean-American author on Sunday, November 9, at its London venue. The event took place just one day before the Booker Prize announcement, drawing significant attendance from readers, literary professionals, and members of the UK publishing community.
The literary dialogue was moderated by Sarah Howe, an award-winning poet and editor at Penguin Random House, who led an in-depth exploration of Choi's latest novel "Flashlight." The book is a richly layered narrative that spans themes of memory, place, and identity across Korea, Japan, and the United States. "Flashlight" has garnered considerable attention in British literary circles, earning praise for its emotional depth, ambitious structure, and historical resonance. Critics have described it as one of the most formally compelling works on this year's Booker shortlist.
During the event, Choi reflected extensively on the central themes of her novel, particularly focusing on memory, identity, and language. She opened the discussion by reading from the first page with the line "Louisa and her father walked along the breakwater," before explaining how "Flashlight" navigates the complex boundaries between personal recollection and historical trauma. "In writing this novel, I found myself constantly returning to Korean history and its legacies," she noted. "What I discovered was not a singular truth, but a layered structure of memory – fractured, complicated and deeply human. That complexity is precisely what gives narrative its life."
The conversation delved deeper into how naming, language, and written symbols function in the novel, not merely as tools of expression, but as carriers of emotional, historical, and cultural meaning. Choi shared her perspective on the moral dimensions of storytelling, stating, "Reconstructing memory is not just about recovering the past – it is a moral enquiry into how we choose to live in the present."
The audience actively participated in thoughtful discussions covering immigrant identity, narrative ethics, translation, and the role of literature in transforming emotion into art. When one attendee asked about Choi's approach to writing about anger, she responded: "Anger is not just an emotional eruption. In writing, it becomes an act of confronting wounds – and transforming them into language. That is where the healing power of literature begins."
Professor Youngjin Yoo of the London School of Economics offered an observation about the novel's distinctive pacing: "Some passages move quickly, while others slow almost to stillness – yet both keep moving forward. It's striking." Choi replied, "That's a perceptive observation. When I wrote scenes about my mother, they became unexpectedly long – not because many events unfolded, but because something subconscious kept returning to those memories."
Since its publication in June 2025, "Flashlight" has received widespread critical acclaim and was shortlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize, one of the most prestigious awards in contemporary literature. The Booker Prize winners were announced in London on November 10. While "Flashlight" did not take the top honor, it remained one of the most critically acclaimed shortlisted works, praised for its ambitious structure, historical resonance, and emotional depth.
The novel's inclusion on the shortlist has been regarded as a significant moment for both Korean and diasporic storytelling within the English-speaking literary world. Journalist Alex Marshall, writing about "Flashlight" in The New York Times London edition, noted: "Choi expands the story of Louisa's family into a 464-page epic that grapples with real histories across Korea and Japan. The novel reads like reportage at times – but ultimately, Choi proves that fiction can transcend history." As one character reflects in the book: "That was the sort of thing you stayed alive for."
Seunghye Sun, Director of the Korean Cultural Centre UK, commented on the significance of the event and the novel: "'Flashlight' is a powerful literary reconstruction of history – a legacy of memory transformed into art. Through the character of Louisa, I felt a deeply emotional resonance, especially in how the novel retraces memories that travel across Korea, Japan and the United States. On the eve of the Booker Prize announcement, it felt especially meaningful to meet Susan Choi and witness how the turbulent stories of modern Korean history have found their place in global literature – conveyed through the intimate voice of a young girl."
