Susan Choi’s 'Flashlight' is about an alternate-universe version of her own family

NPR's Book of the Day

NPR

Arts, Books

4.2 • 671 Ratings

🗓️ 2 January 2026

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As 2025 comes to a close, we're revisiting interviews with this year's nominees and winners of some of the biggest prizes in literature. Last up: A 10-year-old girl, Louisa, is later found on a beach in Japan – and her father has disappeared. She and her mother are left on their own – but the tragedy doesn’t bring them closer together, at least for a long time. Susan Choi’s novel Flashlight follows this family across generations and a vast historical expanse. In today’s episode, Choi speaks with NPR’s Scott Simon about why her protagonist fends off love, her interest in the historical tensions between Korea and Japan, and the benefit of writing in chronological order.

To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaung. Susan Choi's previous book,
0:06.7	Trust Exercise, was this teen drama about high school theater students that has a middle of the book,
0:12.7	I don't know, I don't want to call it a twist, really, but it upends the psychology of the book.
0:17.6	In comparison, her latest novel, Flashlight, is relatively straightforward, but no less
0:22.6	thought-provoking. It's one of these big stories about a family across decades, and it involves
0:27.8	history and war and secrets and borders. There's a lot going on. And so it makes sense that when
0:33.7	NPR Scott Simon asks how Choi kept track of it all, she says she just put everything in
0:39.7	chronological order. That's ahead. Hello and happy new year. It's Michelle Martin from Morning Edition.
0:46.3	Thank you to everyone who donated during our end-of-year fundraising campaign.
0:50.8	2025 dealt a big blow to NPR and local stations with the loss of federal funding for public
0:55.9	media, but we are so heartened by the outpouring of support, and we will get through
1:00.8	this together.
1:01.7	Thank you for keeping NPR strong, moving into 2026 and beyond.
1:07.3	Susan Choi's new novel opens in mystery and tragedy.
1:11.7	Luisa, 10-year-old girl, and her father's circ walk along a beach in Japan.
1:16.4	He carries a flashlight.
1:18.5	We next see Louisa when she is washed up by the tide struggling to breathe.
1:24.4	The father is gone.
1:26.1	He couldn't swim.
1:44.2	What happened? What will unfold next to the happened? What will unfold next to the family? And what might we miss in our own life stories? Flashlight is Susan Choi's novel. And Susan Choi, a National Book Award winner, who is taught creative writing at Yale, joins us from New York. Thanks so much for being with us.
1:45.9	Thanks so much for having me.
1:48.1	Help us understand all that weighs on Louisa to awake to be alive, but also to have
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.