Reviewers describes this book as an addictive legal thriller. Liberty Hardy describes it this way: "This stunning debut is a family drama, courtroom thriller, and a mystery, all of which add up to one of the most incredible novels... The Miracle Submarine is an experimental medical treatment device, essentially a pressurized oxygen chamber, run by Korean immigrants Young and Pak Yoo in rural Virginia. Though it's first considered revolutionary, public opinion turns against the device when it explodes, killing two people and tearing a community apart. Who is at fault? As the trial at the heart of the book unfolds, we gradually learn about the town, its secrets, and how the Yoos' hopes and dreams became a nightmare. I was absolutely floored by this book! It had so many important, heartbreaking messages about immigration, parenting, and responsibility. And knowing that Kim herself is a Korean immigrant, a former trial lawyer, and mother to a 'submarine' patient, lends a whole additional level of credibility to the book."

From the publisher: "'We didn’t call the police right away.' Those are the electric first words of this extraordinary novel about a biracial Korean American family in Virginia whose lives are upended when their beloved father and husband goes missing. Mia, the irreverent, hyperanalytical twenty-year-old daughter, has an explanation for everything—which is why she isn’t initially concerned when her father and younger brother Eugene don't return from a walk in a nearby park. They must have lost their phone. Or stopped for an errand somewhere. But by the time Mia’s brother runs through the front door bloody and alone, it becomes clear that the father in this tight-knit family is missing and the only witness is Eugene, who has the rare genetic condition Angelman syndrome and cannot speak. What follows is both a ticking-clock investigation into the whereabouts of a father and an emotionally rich portrait of a family whose most personal secrets just may be at the heart of his disappearance."