The Foreign Student

Set in wartime Korea during the early 1950s, and in the American South in the years immediately following, The Foreign Student brings together two intelligent, original charactersa Korean student and a rebellious young American womanin an affecting story of improbable love and emotional healing. Chang Ahn, called Chuck, has arrived at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, with the contents of one suitcase and a working knowledge of English. It is 1955, and he has come to escape nightmarish memories of his native Korea. Guarded and reserved, Chuck is slow to befriend the American students, with the exception of Crane, a boisterous, wealthy dormitory mate who sets aside his own parochial opinions to cultivate a friendship with this intriguing Korean. A charismatic professor of English, Charles Addison, also takes a particular interest in Chuck. But it is Katherine Monroe, alone among the members of the sleepy college community, who becomes the private center of Chuck's attention. In many ways, Katherine is as much an outsider as he is. Neither student nor faculty, she lives in Sewanee, somewhat isolated in her family's onetime summer house. The two meet on his first morning in town, and they sense an immediate, strange affinity. Katherine, commanding and resolute, begins marshaling Chuck on his round of obligations, and they form a devoted, if cautious, friendship. Both remain circumspect about the afflictions of the past that have led them to seek a kind of refuge in Sewanee. The seemingly impossible love that develops between Katherine and Chuck is as first denied, later resisted by both. It will drive them apart, and send them on separate journeys of self-discovery that will eventually strengthen the bonds rather than the differences between them. Both loners and survivors, they must come to recognize why their pasts have led them to this particular time and place, and what fate has, perhaps, intended. With the storytelling prowess of a seasoned veteran, and the elegant prose of a rare master of fiction, Susan Choi has written a stunning first novel. At once haunting and illuminating, The Foreign Student is a remarkable achievement.