AMAZON EDITORS PICK

“A fascinating story of a young mixed-race man caught between two cultures, not knowing what to keep and what to leave behind.”—James McBride, author of The Color of Water 

A "magnificent" (Ha Jin) and “magical” (Marie Myung-Ok Lee) fever dream of a novel that interweaves the coming-of-age of a 1970s Korean-American boy grappling with his identity and the impact of intergenerational trauma. 

 

  • “A brilliant novel populated by a wonderful cast of characters and boasting a number of beautifully realized set pieces that will live in the reader’s memory.” —Booklist (starred review)

    “A lovely achievement.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

    “A magnificent novel with a grand vision and assured execution.”

    —Ha Jin, author of Waiting

    “Magical.”—Marie Myung-Ok Lee, author of The Evening Hero

    “Precious, life altering, rebellious, funny, and full of a necessary truth.”—Alexander Chee, author of The Queen of the Night

    “Extremely rewarding in all of its many dimensions.”—Madison Smartt Bell, author of All Souls’ Rising

    “An epic story that is as much about the modernization of Korea as the coming-of-age of its protagonist. ... [T]he novel comes into its own in the second half as it unites narrative power with philosophical musing with spectacular results. A courageous and profound novel.”—Kirkus

  • ABOUT THE BOOK

    Growing up outside a US military base in South Korea in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, Insu—the son of a Korean mother and a German father enlisted in the US Army—spends his days with his “half and half” friends skipping school, selling scavenged Western goods on the black market, watching Hollywood movies, and testing the boundaries between childhood and adulthood. When he hears a legend that water collected in a human skull will cure any sickness, he vows to dig up a skull in order to heal his ailing Big Uncle, a geomancer who has been exiled by the family to a mountain cave to die.

    Insu’s quest takes him and his friends on a sprawling, wild journey into some of South Korea’s darkest corners, opening them up to a fantastical world beyond their grasp. Meanwhile, Big Uncle has embraced his solitude and fate, trusting in otherworldly forces Insu cannot access. As he recalls his wartime experiences of betrayal and lost love, Big Uncle attempts to teach his nephew that life is not limited to what we can see—or think we know.

    Largely autobiographical and sparkling with magical realism, Skull Water is the story of a boy coming into his own—and the ways the past haunts the present in a country on the cusp of modernity struggling to confront its troubled history. As Insu seeks the wisdom of his ancestors, what he learns, he hopes, will save not just his uncle but himself.

    PRODUCT DETAILS

    ISBN: 9781954118195
    Price: $28
    On-sale date: 2/7/23
    Weight: 1 LBS

Born in South Korea to a German father and a Korean mother, Heinz Insu Fenkl grew up in Korea until he was twelve, and then in Germany and the U.S. A professor of English at SUNY New Paltz, where he teaches creative writing, Asian and Asian American literature, and film, he is also a folklorist, who has edited anthologies of Korean folklore and translated seminal folktales and Buddhist texts; and from its inception until 2017 he was a member of the editorial board for Harvard University's Azalea: Journal of Korean Literature and Culture.  A section of Skull Water appeared in The New Yorker. Fenkl lives in New York's Hudson Valley. 

Author Website