Keum Suk Gendry-Kim’s amazing illustrations take a reader through the devastation of being not only uprooted from one’s home and forced onto the road as a refugee, but too often being separated from loved ones in the process. The art style was also very nice and the pacing of panels were used well to emphasize moments and evoke emotional responses. It was obvious the writer did some nice research about the war and the reunification process and how that affected loved ones. While this story is a work of fiction you can tell the author paid careful attention to make it seem so real and believable. The story was told with present and past experiences being intertwined which helped to land the sweetness of moments as well as the sadness. The focus of the story was not on the war at all but how people were separated from loved ones while evacuating the North.

I'm not a big reader of war novels but given this was a chance and I was so glad I did. This graphic novel follows one woman's story of the Korean War and how she was separated from loved ones. This book was moving and heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. * I received an eARC/e-galley of this book via Netgalley. The story is a reminder of the families that are still unable to communicate and left to wonder about the fate of their family members 60 years later, and an attempt to bring attention to the sadness still felt by the families affected by the Korean War and to show them compassion and kindness. Along the way, the family is separated and unable to find one another, leading to descriptions of the attempts of NGOs to reunite family members separated into what is now two separate and solidly divided nations.

Then the mother's tale of her family's attempts to outlast a series of wars and occupation in Northern Korea, a marriage of convenience, motherhood, and then the long road to Southern Korea. The story starts in modern day Korea in the neighborhood where the author and her mother live, where the daughter is forced to move a distance out of the city due to rising rents.

The illustrations are beautifully done and perfectly convey the fear and uncertainty of a family attempting to survive wartime in Korea. 'The Waiting' is a fictionalized account of the author's mother's journey from North Korea to South Korea during the Korean war and the family she has left behind.

Keum suk gendry kim the waiting