Cover Image: Miracle on Cherry Hill

Miracle on Cherry Hill

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Member Reviews

Quite 'fable like' this story is of Kang, an elderly man who has been diagnosed with a brain tumour.
Kang decides he need to return to Cherry Hill where his childhood memories place him and reside with his frustrations in loneliness, peace and quiet. But Cherry Hill has changed, the ownership the people the community and they have other ideas. Kang is not going to be left alone they care and support him and show a unity he has rarely seen. Can he let go of the past and forgive?.
A thoughtful and provoking tale about second chances and redemption.

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Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this novel.

My rating: 3.5 stars
Trigger warnings: cancer (brain tumour), illness, grief.

After reading "The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly" a few years back and loving it, as soon as I saw this one on NetGalley I instantly hit request.

There was nothing particularly wrong with this, and I definitely see why people love it, but for me, it wasn't what I was expecting and overall I was just very bored.

I couldn't help but fall a little in love with Kang (the main character). While he was a grumpy old man who treated people poorly at times, we got glimpses of the life he led and the things he's experienced, we also see that he is actually a very kind-hearted and considerate person underneath all the grumpiness.

Ultimately, this book is all about the past, can past mistakes ever be forgiven? Can past hurts ever be overlooked? Kang is lost, he is looking for guidance and maybe validation, to understand and let go of the past. It's about forgiveness, understanding and second chances.

While I felt like the story was definitely an emotional roller coaster, I was very bored in places and I found the plot a little repetitive. Even though this book is only 200 pages long, I thought it could've been shortened to make the story even more impactful.

Overall, I'm very glad I had the opportunity to read this one and I won't hesitate to read more by this author in the future!

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This is a book I had every hope and intention of loving and being invested it. And, while there is a lot to admire in its characters and humble setting, it's remarkable how slow and arduously lifeless such a short novel can be. It's not without its charm and intrigue, but the execution feels like a missed opportunity for what should have been such a uniquely promising and compelling plot.

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I have read a couple of Korean author Sun-mi Hwuang's novels. They are always physically slight, nothing much over 200 pages, but they are beautifully told stories which always seem to end up making me happy. They aren't necessarily books with happy subjects - this one tells of Kang Dae-su, a successful and wealthy architect who returns to the place where he had been a poor and lonely child. He has been diagnosed with a brain tumour and is somewhat obsessed with punishing what he sees as the poor treatment he received as a child. Gradually, however, he comes to discover that he may not have seen the whole picture and, somewhat against his will, he meets more and more of the current residents of Cherry Hill: those who call the place home.

Kang is an interesting character - he plans to destroy the community which now takes him in but you don't feel that he is a bad man. Despite his professional standing and the wealth and power he now possesses he is, at heart, the child who felt alone and abandoned to his fate. His return to his childhood home and the people he meets there show him that not only is he valued now but that his childhood was watched over by the community who welcome him back in without knowing his past. The ending is bittersweet - acknowledging that some of the ravages of time can never be repaired - but it does remind us of all the good which exists in the world, whether we are aware of it or not.

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Diagnosed with brain cancer, middle-aged Kang goes back to his childhood neighborhood, Cherry Hill, where he intends to live for the rest of his life. But, although his wealth has allowed him to purchase not only a house but the whole hill, the locals don't seem to accept that. Children play in his back yard, an old woman collects flowers in his garden every day, and a girl feed chickens in his basement. Furious at first, can Kang manage to see the situation better as time goes by?

Miracle on Cherry Hill is a tender book that at times feels more like an illustration than an actual, word-constructed story. Which is exactly what makes it so unique. The author has managed to paint a spectacular mental painting, and the reader can understand, imagine, and empathize effortlessly.

Miracle on Cherry Hill has a lot to teach us, and each reader will draw their own conclusions. But the fact is that, love it or hate it, it is definitely a beautifully written story.

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‘They had lived different lives, in different time zones. They were in the same space right now, but they couldn’t cross over to each other.’

Korean writer Sun-mi Hwang has written a charming, deceptively simple fable which is a delight to read. And it does indeed read like a fable or allegory whilst also containing characters that develop and interest the reader, even in such a relatively short novel.

Kang Daesu has owned the big house on Cherry Hill for thirty years, but only now, having been diagnosed with a brain tumour (which he refers to as Sir Lump), has he finally has moved in. As the book slowly unfolds, we learn more about his past, and it transpires that he once lived in the very same house as a child, having been taken in, along with his father, by the family that had been living there. As secrets are revealed, Kang starts to realise that his version of the past, and his memories of that time, are wrong. The characters that he meets turn out to be the self-same people from his past, and the book edges slowly towards some sort of bittersweet redemption, a coming to turns with the past when it is almost too late.

There is some subtle – and not so subtle – symbolism throughout the book; the huge garden that surrounds the house has been used by the adjoining communities as a place to play and relax. Kang keeps finding secret gates and entrances that he has sealed up, and the garden starts to go to ruin. This is an Eden, a place where man and nature has found a balance, a breathing space in a hectic world; one character comments: ‘This is a living space….There’s always a way in.’

Surely no-one can fail to be charmed by this little book, which never veers into over-simplicity or gets too sentimental? There is an air of regret, and the sense of lost opportunities; it is a book about old age and memories and ‘the inevitability of endings.’ But there is also the belief that things can, somehow, be re-balanced, hopes can be recovered, even if for a moment, and that in the children the future is in good hands. A story of redemption with some beautiful illustrations that convey the (apparent) simplicity of the tale, I definitely recommend this. 4 stars.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.)

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A minimalist tale with a wonderfully fable-esque quality - its humble nature provided effortless company and rewarding insightfulness from beginning to end.

Watching anyone exchange the armour surrounding their heart for understanding, and being understood, is priceless.

I would definitely consider reading more work by this author in future.

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A story of an old man who returns to his childhood home hoping to have some peace and quite but the other residents on the village have other ideas.
A slow burning story that did not hold my attention.
Thank you NetGalley and Little Brown Book UK for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

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An international best seller a book of homecoming a book of past memories ,a book of hurt.When a man suffering with a brain tumor comes home to his hometown a place that brings him nothing but anger.This gentle book shows us that memories can be wrong life people misjudged .A book that stays with you. #netgalley #littlebrownuk

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This is an “international bestseller” – by weight a slight novel translated from the Korean and interspersed with simple block cut designs by Nomoco. So it is delicate little book to have, hold or gift.
My Kang, an elderly self-made architect and developer, with a serious brain tumour has decided to buy and live in a previously empty “big house” in its grounds – a scheduled development site. Behind that is a life-long grudge. He had been raised here as a child, housed in a “shed” in the garden with his father (returned from the war) until his early death after an accident. Kang had been sent to a foster family in the US that led to his education and successful business life. But his main memories are of a series of slights he received (perceived) from the other children around him in his difficulties and poverty.
He slips in, supposedly unannounced, to live in the house; but will gradually meet more and more of the local residents. To his major annoyance he will discover that the local children (and others too) are using the grounds as a play area, or refuge, gardening, walking, and keeping chickens. With law on his side he will ban them all.
He has no family himself. But he will gradually meet more people and unravel the links and histories of the families, most of whom tie him back to his own childhood. They increasingly provide company, support and continuity as he weakens. He will also have to re-assess his views of their behaviours in the past – this time from an adult perspective rather than that of a child.
The house and grounds are legally his to do what he wants with. But there is a long community tradition of people using the grounds – they value the old rural landscape within the urban creep. But it also reflects older ties and values for them, often in otherwise financially constrained lives. Is acting to enforce his “rights” actually the polite and correct thing to do? Can he learn to reach out to the community? To share with and support others, as they will with him?
Modern life is moving on and changing, increasingly urban, with broader national and cultural links, but at the risk of older community knowledge, and support networks, failing. Can they still be protected and at what cost?
A very simple story or one that addresses deep philosophical questions of life? Well actually both. These are not just Korean issues, but international ones too. So individuals and book groups both will be drawn to it.

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Beautiful gentle book - Kang returns to his childhood home, full of bitterness and resentment about his departure many years ago. He discovers everything, and yet nothing has changed. We slowly learn the cast of characters of Cherry Hill, and their connections to events that happened years ago - which are not quite what Kang remembered after all.

This was a lovely book, I was sad to leave Cherry Hill when I finished it.

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Having finished the book,I think I liked it more than when I was reading it.
Whilst reading,a lot of Kangs choices and moods didn't make sense.
Its a very valid point,on who does cherry hill and the gardens belong to..... and my answer would be to the community.
It was an ok read,but I don't think it will be very memorable.
Though I wonder if there was a deeper meaning I just didn't get.

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