The Queen of Tears: A Novel of Contemporary Hawai'i

A woman with a turbulent past fights for her family’s future, in a saga spanning from the Korean War to modern-day Hawaii.
 
By age fourteen, Park Soong Nan was on her own—fleeing the communists, a waif living in the streets of Seoul, begging from American soldiers and stealing food. Then fate dramatically intervened, and only five years later, she was the brightest star of Korean cinema, nicknamed “The Queen of Tears.”
 
Decades later, she has come to visit her three grown children, who have settled in Hawaii. One son has yet another business venture he’s hoping she will bankroll. Her daughter Won Ju is staying in an unhappy marriage purely for the sake of her troubled teenage son. And her younger daughter, Darian, has dropped out of college on the mainland, searching for a way to honor her ethnic heritage.
 
Becoming more deeply enmeshed in her children’s lives, Soong Nan finds herself reflecting on her own as well—as her arrival sets off smoldering jealousies, dormant longings, and a desperate rivalry for her affection. . . .