http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byvSzo6sHsM

Kim Hyun Rho, a news reporter for Yonhap News (Korean AP) in Chicago, did an article on 08/14/2013 about the Kirkus review The Voices of Heaven received.  Here’s the link (It’s in Korean!).

http://www.yonhapnews.co.kr/international/2013/08/14/0601180100AKR20130814044700009.HTML

The Voices of Heaven, my novel/love story set during the Korean War, received this review from Kirkus Review.  The review is published in Kirkus Review website.  The link is:

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/maija-rhee-devine/the-voices-of-heaven-AuvWtfPI/

This review is already on Amazon and spd (small press distribution) and will be posted in the websites of Kirkus Review’s affiliates including Google, Amazon, Barns & Noble, Ingram, Baker & Taylor, etc.

KIRKUS REVIEW, 08/07/2013

TITLE INFORMATION

THE VOICES OF HEAVEN

Devine, Maija Rhee

Seoul Selection (316 pp.)

$16.00 paperback, $9.99 e-book

ISBN: 978-1624120039; May 15, 2013

BOOK REVIEW

In Devine’s debut novel, war and traditional Confucianism tear apart an idyllic Korean family.
Eum-chun and her husband, Gui-yong, have been married for 15 years and are deeply in love. Although they adore their adopted daughter, Mi-Na, they fail to produce a son—a serious problem in their deeply traditional society. Gui-yong eventually gives in to his mother’s wishes and marries a second woman, Soo-yang, hoping she will deliver a boy to carry on the family name. Although Eum-chun tries to bear the situation bravely, she’s devastated, and cracks soon begin to form in the seemingly perfect family. The novel, set against the backdrop of the Korean War, follows four main characters as they navigate their new family and the chaos that ravages the land. Devine’s prose richly describes everyday life in 1950s Korea, and the war effectively parallels the battle raging in the family home—an insurmountable rift divides the family, just as it does their country. It’s a realistic sketch of a Korea that few Westerners have seen, depicting a patriarchal society that limits women’s choices, and each character faces a unique battle stemming from that unfortunate situation. Each of their stories is rich with emotion, and their problems give the novel depth and complexity. Most compelling are the struggles of Eum-chun, Mi-Na and Soo-yang as they fight to create their own identities; although they all fight similar battles, they cannot fight them together, as their society has driven wedges between them. Their resulting stories are often melancholy and achingly beautiful.
A complex, uniquely Korean love story that shouldn’t be missed.

During my May/June of 2013 author-visit stay in Seoul, Korea, one of the highlights was my interview with KBS’s international news anchor June Chang.  She produced a series of interviews as part of the embassy’s oral history programming, “America and Me,” for the observance of the 60th anniversary of the Armistice Agreement of the Korean War.  My portion of the interviews, 3-minutes long, has been posted to the embassy’s website and also on YouTube.  I plan to go into the embassy website and view interviews of other Korean War survivors, especially that of Gen. Baek Sun-yop, who played an absolutely pivotal role during the war.  In the “Korean War” section of my website, I posted pictures of a meeting of him and Michael (my husband and director of Harry S. Truman Presidential Library.)  Here’s the link to the interview.

*The “America and Me” video, a Korean War oral history program by the American Embassy in Seoul, includes an interview of Maija Rhee Devine.  It has been uploaded on YouTube and posted to the US Embassy website. It’s a little over three minutes long: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-6-Qm-MtEg

I am also adding a link to my Korea Times article, published on 7/27, again as part of the English language newspaper’s  remembrance of the Armistice Agreement.

*A Korean War story, “My Brother and General MacArthur,” by Maija Rhee Devine was published in Korea Times, 7/27/2013: http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/culture/2013/07/145_140002.html

I know I have this info. on the home page of this website, but I wanted to add my feeling about these two posts.  These stories are specific to the Korean War but the emotion of grief over lost and maimed lives, fury of many depths and reasons for them, and the joy of newly-formed bonding and forgiveness, given and taken–or the despair of it neither given nor taken–are common to all wars.  I’d like to see these messages reach all those whose souls have been touched by wars.  I feel extremely blessed to have been given the opportunity to participate in these programs.  Thank you, war veterans and their families!

7/30, I went into www.GoodReads.com and I found 9 reviews that gave 5-star rating to The Voices of Heaven!  6 gave 4-stars and 3 gave 3 stars.  There are 20 pages of people who marked the book as their “to-read.”