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You're listening to it's been a minute from NPR.

I'm your host B.A. Parker and our guest today just released his beautiful debut novel that moves across two seemingly unrelated places.

Hawaii and the Korean Peninsula.

Nuclear family I would summarize as a Korean stoner ghost story and a family dramedy.

It's about a Korean family in Hawaii whose platelet restaurant faces backlash when Jacob gets caught attempting to cross over into North Korea through the Korean demilitaria zone.

And so the family must struggle with questions of whether he will return and why he attempted such a crossing.

Not knowing that Jacob has been haunted by the ghost of his lost grandfather.

That's writer Joseph Han.

Joseph was born in Korea and immigrated with his family to Hawaii at a young age.

His new book is called Nuclear Family and it explores how US imperialism and military presence affects native peoples and their lands in the two places his family calls home.

I wanted to write a novel that shows how these histories are intimately entangled and to show how war is ever present not only in our physical reality or realm but how it impacts generations.

The novel is incredibly moving but it's also really funny and all throughout Joseph draws from his own life including his experiences with separation from loved ones.

And with Korean memorials and spiritual practices as well as organized religion.

It's a story about reunion ultimately.

Reunion with the folks that we have long lost whether they are still alive or dead and that's a big question for Korean families who are not sure if their loved ones are still with us and alive beyond the Korean DMC and in the Northern Peninsula.

Before we dive into the book I want to share what Joseph said about when the story takes place. It's 2018 at a time when Hawaiian residents received an alert from the government that a ballistic missile from North Korea was expected to hit the islands.

People ran for their lives after an alert mistakenly warned residents and visitors of an incoming ballistic missile.

It was when tensions between the United States and North Korea were high following a series of nuclear and missile tests.

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