Endless Blue Sky: A Novel by Lee Hyoseok

If you're interested in Korea during the Japanese colonial era or Japan's puppet state of Manchukuo during that time, this novel will definitely interest you. It's not a literary masterpiece, although it's also lively and engaging and not a clunker at all! The author and protagonist are part of the cultural elite in Kyeongsong, as Seoul was called when the whole of Korea was a Japanese colony. He goes to Harbin in Manchukuo, which was a Russian city before the Japanese took over Manchuria and set up their puppet state, to invite the orchestra to come and perform in Kyeongsong. There he meets and falls in love with the red-haired Russian cabaret dancer, Nadia. Everything Western is modern in his mind -- which was in many ways a very Japanese way of thinking at that time! And Manchukuo, especially Harbin, symbolizes a frontier land of risk and opportunity. The novel itself is a bit overburdened with interior thought and complicated romance, but it's such an unusual piece of writing that I found it fascinatingly different and really enjoyed reading it