White Mulberry: A Novel

What happens to the self when you leave someplace, and what self do you meet in the new? What self do you sacrifice? White Mulberry is the story of Miyoung, a spirited child who identifies herself with the fiery dragon that represents her birth year and the white mulberry tree which inspires her resilience throughout her life in Japan. As a young girl, she receives a mulberry journal from her teacher and writes a prophetic haiku: “Youth does not return/I am wearing white clothing/I will live humbly.” “I used to wear my white hanbok when I was little, like all the village girls did. But now I’m in Japan wearing a different kind of white uniform as a nurse aide.” Just as “Japan had transformed from a small island country into a military giant. She had gone from a little girl with dreams of becoming a teacher to a single mother, nurse, and midwife forging an unknown path.” When Miyoung is ordered to serve in the Japanese Imperial Army, she is faced with the impossible choice of saving herself or leaving her child during Japan's occupation of Korea. “Could lying be an act of love?...Was she being selfish in wanting him for herself? Wouldn’t he have a better life with his extended family than with a single mother running away from military service?...Maybe to have love, she had to be prepared to pay with her heart.” “As a Korean woman, single mother, nurse, midwife, and spiritual believer, Miyoung had discovered the ‘brave’ part of her Korean name…She had fulfilled that old Korean proverb that carried her mother’s hope: At the end of hardship, happiness had come.” Inspired by the real life of Rosa Kwon Easton’s grandmother, White Mulberry is an inspirational story of family, survival, and hope that empowers its readers to empathize with the experience of others and “to explore, share, and celebrate our authentic selves.” A must read!