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MAGNOLIA
A NOVEL
Here is an extraordinary love story that speaks to the crisis of separation and scorn, love and hate, following the Korean War ceasefire in July 1953. Four years later, Sukey, a graduate with much promise, falls in love with Kwon, a man who confesses to having been a North Korean spy. Although hostilities are over, enmity towards the North is the social norm and deeply entrenched. With anti-spy campaigns, street searches, and arrests of any suspect, citizens are urged to be vigilant and to report on any suspicious goings-on. When Sukey takes on Kwon as her lover, she has little idea of what it will be like to keep an ex-spy hidden away from society, her family and friends. Her world changes overnight…
Told with extraordinary honesty and immense sensitivity, insight and passion, this is also social history worthy of comparison with some of the nineteenth-century greats. It is historically educational, emotionally brave and a joy to read.
Cover Illustration:
Photo courtesy Ticia Norbury
RENAISSANCE BOOKS
978-1-898823-18-6
MAGNOLIA
Magnolia
A NOVEL
by
Agnita Tennant
Magnolia: A Novel
By Agnita Tennant
First published 2015 by
RENAISSANCE BOOKS
PO Box 219
Folkestone
Kent CT20 2WP
Renaissance Books is an imprint of Global Books Ltd
ISBN 978-1-898823-18-6
eISBN 978-1-898823-29-2
© Agnita Tennant 2015
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Typeset in Bembo 12 on 14 by Dataworks.
Printed and bound in England by CPI Antony Rowe
Contents
MAGNOLIA
by
Ronald Duncan (1978)
From where these birds
Which perch upon the bough
Leafless, but for their white wings
Of ivory or alabaster
Now furled, so spruce, so still?
What dark wind swept them?
Across which seas?
Drawn by what instincts?
Migrating from where to where?
Or are these not birds, nor flowers,
But hands in prayer
Clenched in brief hope
Wrung
