Nuclear Family

Set in the months leading up to the 2018 nuclear missile false alarm, a Korean American family living in Hawai'i faces the fallout of their eldest son's attempt to run across the Demilitarized Zone into North Korea in this "fresh, inventive, and at times, hilarious novel" (Kaui Hart Hemmings, author of The Descendants)

Things are looking up for Mr. and Mrs. Cho. Their dream of franchising their Korean plate lunch restaurants across Hawaiʻi seems within reach after a visit from Guy Fieri boosts the profile of Cho's Delicatessen. Their daughter, Grace, is busy finishing her senior year of college and working for her parents, while her older brother, Jacob, just moved to Seoul to teach English. But when a viral video shows Jacob trying--and failing--to cross the Korean demilitarized zone, nothing can protect the family from suspicion and the restaurant from waning sales.

No one knows that Jacob has been possessed by the ghost of his lost grandfather, who feverishly wishes to cross the divide and find the family he left behind in the north. As Jacob is detained by the South Korean government, Mr. and Mrs. Cho fear their son won't ever be able to return home, and Grace gets more and more stoned as she negotiates her family's undoing. Struggling with what they don't know about themselves and one another, the Chos must confront the separations that have endured in their family for decades.

Set in the months leading up to the 2018 false missile alert in Hawaiʻi, Joseph Han's profoundly funny and strikingly beautiful debut novel is an offering that aches with histories inherited and reunions missed, asking how we heal in the face of what we forget and who we remember.

Editorial Reviews

APALA Adult Literature Honor Book
Shortlisted for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Prize
Longlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, TIME, Debutiful, and them
Named a Most Anticipated Book by BuzzFeed, LGBTQ Reads, The Millions, Goodreads, and more

"You'd have to visit Cirque du Soleil to see someone juggle as much as Han with such effortless dexterity and tenderness . . . Rhythmic and hypnotic; it captivates from the very first page and gracefully conveys the loss and the longing the family experiences." -The New York Times Book Review

"This book is genius . . . The narrative is inventive, and the prose is too: upside-down sentences, scrambled language, erased words. None of this is distracting; it only enhances the reading experience. Oh, and the book is funny. No. Hilarious. Nuclear Family woke me up from the deep slumber of Covid and brought me back to life. I'm sure it will do the same for every reader." -Morgan Talty, The Wall Street Journal

"Joseph Han's heartfelt and hilarious novel is so well executed, so self-assured, that it's hard to believe it's a debut . . . Guy Fieri, who makes a cameo in the novel, might call this book 'off the chain'; we'll just settle for 'masterful.'" -Michael Schaub, A NPR Best Book of the Year

"[A] gorgeous debut." -TIME

"Inventive." -A Washington Post Book to Read This Summer

"An inventive debut . . . In Nuclear Family, through laughter and wonder and intriguing complexity, Han makes us pay attention." -Bethanne Patrick, Los Angeles Times

"The unalloyed genius of Nuclear F...

Readers Top Reviews

I loved this book and it's probably one of my favorites this year. It's amazing how he packs in so many things and ideas, and moves from one mood to another seamlessly. I also loved his prose so much that I highlighted quite a few sentences/paragraphs. There are some experimental parts that you may either love or hate. However for me this book is a must-read.

Janet G

I completely agree with Alexander Chee's statement that graces the gorgeous and meaningful front cover of Nuclear Family. It is "one of the most original novels . . . in the last decade." The reviews that are all over the map attest to its uniqueness as well as how personal reading is. I love this book. I found the story so compelling that I had to slow myself down to appreciate the words. The premise and promise Joseph Han introduces in this book is complex. 1. Governments, with their militaries in conjunction with global powers, construct walls and boundaries. 2. What keeps these divisions in place is our collective consciousness if we choose to accept them, which means that a new vision or consciousness can make these same walls "porous" (Han). His book is an experiment in creating a new vision that can allow us to deconstruct borders of many kinds. To enter into this conversation with Joseph Han, we need to be willing to let go of lots of preconceptions. If we can do try, the author will show us the way. Right now I cannot think of another novel that could be more important to read. This book isn't about a dysfunctional family. It is more about the dysfunctional structures that have shaped generations of an extended family and how certain shocks to the system provide an opportunity for a reboot. Finally, I agree with B. A. Parker, host of NPR's "It's Been A Minute," when she indicates that (paraphrasing) Joseph Han's writing shifts seamlessly from hilarious to poignant. That is one of my favorite things to find in a novel.

SarahJubileeJanet

A promising premise but aspects of the story telling need to be rethought and edited. Grace’s character is just annoying and tiresome to read. The last quarter of the book completely shifted in writing style and tone as if the author changed voice. Overall I am disappointed as this could have been an amazing book but ended up leaving me just wanting to finish and move on to a better written book.

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Nuclear Family

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