Flashlight

Flashlight opens with a mystery: in 1970s Japan, Louisa and her father Serk go for a walk by the shore at dusk, flashlight in hand. The two don’t return as expected. Hours later, searchers find Louisa, unconscious in the water, but her father is missing. Choi subsequently crosses generations and continents as she traces what happened in the decades before and after his disappearance, exploring the estrangements and sorrows of two families, how geopolitics impacts ordinary citizens, and (playing with that flashlight metaphor) how our limited understanding of the people we love causes us pain. An absorbing and satisfyingly complex epic.