The Boat Not Taken: A North Korean Mother and Her Daughter

Desperate for her daughter's safety during the Communist takeover of North Korea, Joanna Choi's mother left her in a Seoul orphanage. She retrieved her months later to return to their once-tranquil hamlet, but the boatman on the returning ship refused to let the pair board. Joanna and her beloved Omai (mother) became immigrants in mid-twentieth century California, whose streets were supposedly paved with gold, but whose reality was one of hardship, poverty, and anti-Asian discrimination. A lyrical, often humorous memoir, THE BOAT NOT TAKEN is also the story of a divided Korea. Above all it is a love letter to an extraordinary woman: an independent widow fiercely devoted yet destructively deceptive to her child, whose shattering secret, uncovered after her death, shakes the author's sense of identity.

Author: Joanna Choi Kalbus
Publisher: Betty
Published: 05/06/2025
Pages: 258
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.60lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.60w x 0.60d
ISBN: 9798987719794


Review Citation(s):
Shelf Awareness 05/16/2025

About the Author
Joanna Choi Kalbus was born in North Korea. She made two critical migrations-- escaping to South Korea after the Communist takeover, then immigrating to the United States as a ten-year-old during the Korean War. She received her PhD in Educational Administration from the University of California, Riverside, and has worked as a teacher, principal, regional superintendent. She is a writer, harpist, and annual participant in the Bay to Breakers Footrace. She lives in Moraga, CA. Joanna Choi Kalbus was born in North Korea. She made two critical migrations-- escaping to South Korea after the Communist takeover, then immigrating to the United States as a ten-year-old during the Korean War. She received her PhD in Educational Administration from the University of California, Riverside, and has worked as a teacher, principal, regional superintendent. She is a writer, harpist, and annual participant in the Bay to Breakers Footrace. She lives in Moraga, CA.