Jing-Jing Lee's How We Disappeared is a captivating and heart-wrenching novel about identity, displacement, and resilience in the face of war. In 1942 Wang Di is seized by the Japanese and forced to be a “comfort woman” for the duration of the war. It's beautiful and heart-breaking at the same time. Our main characters go through so incredibly much abuse and sorrow and never really open up to each other what happened during the war and Japanese occupation. The book's pacing is ineffective, and the framework lends itself to redundancy. Finally, the first and last chapters allude to the unreliability of memory but feel like a cheap riff off of Life of Pi With no intention of diminishing or trivializing a comfort woman's experience, it must be said that Lee's portrayal of Wang Di is about as good as a comfort woman could hope for. With nearly half a million women forced into sexual slavery, it's estimated that less than ten percent - ten percent - survived. It seems a failed opportunity on Lee's part not to provide a first-person narrative of a second (or even a third) comfort woman who's experiences are a more authentic portrayal of the abuse, rape, trauma, starvation, disease and death suffered by comfort women.

Every character in this story has a unique voice and journey of their own and Jing-Jing Lee develops each of them precisely and brilliantly. These are the two major characters of this novel and they are connected. Kevin tries to solve the puzzle that his grandmother has left him with unintentionally in the present. While Wang Di spends most of her time in the early years of World War 2. From the moment I saw it on the library’s shelf late one night, I was intrigued by the design and title - little did I know that this would be such an emotionally charged story. How We Disappeared was a 5-star read prediction from me. I just had a feeling. Maybe it was the anticipation of reading it. Maybe it was all the other fascinating HiFi books that I have read. Maybe it was me. Maybe it wasn’t. But, I did not feel as much as I wanted to while reading this book. The writing was beautiful, yes, but it did not leave a lasting impact. The story had a lot to offer, yes, but somehow it was not enough. I wanted it to be even more beautiful than its cover. I wanted it to hurt more. I wanted to feel much more empathy for the characters. I wanted more complexities in the story. I wanted more from it. I have rated How We Disappeared by Jing-Jing Lee at 4/5 stars. I found this to be an occasionally frustrating and messy yet ultimately satisfying read. Its main strength was Jing-Jing Lee's skill at immersing the reader, and the chapters set during WWII really came to life. I do think a bit too much of the narrative focused on Kevin - not to the detriment of Wang Di's narrative, as I felt that her sections were properly fleshed out - it's more that Kevin himself added very little as a character. I tend to prefer historical fiction that doesn't have a past/present framing, and this was no exception; I kept wishing it would stay in the 1940s. That said, I do feel that Jing-Jing Lee ultimately justified this narrative decision with the way the story wrapped up, even if it wouldn't have been my first choice of how to tell it.

About two years later, we had a child, a boy. Suddenly there was someone to take care of. It made me feel different. Less of a person and more because here was part of me in that little boy, but I was more because I had real responsibilities now. I helped create a human being” The other part of the story focuses on a young boy name Kevin. He learns secrets that his grandmother had been keeping that were also ‘unspeakable’. This book follows the twelve-year-old Kevin's zealous journey to discern the truth about his grandmother Wang Di. Kevin is trying to discover what happened to his grandmother during 1942 when the Japanese troops rummaged Singapore. Wang Di was unfortunately shipped to the military rape camp in Japan. She sacrificed her sacrilegious concept of family for her own family. But did it go in vain? This book will give you the answer. Le donne sono le protagoniste di questo libro. Corpi abusati, maltrattati, come bambole rotte. Vuoti.

Parallelamente alla sua storia, c’è il racconto del piccolo Kevin un ragazzino singaporiano bullizzato a scuola che, alla morte della nonna, scopre un grande segreto celato alla famiglia per anni. In the creative hands of Jing-Jing Lee, the rawness and the brutality of the war years in Singapore become a reality for all of us. Once occupied by the British, Singapore became a land seemingly passed from hand to hand always waiting for the boots of strangers to fill the room with echoes of uncertainty. Plot wise, I think this book could be confusing to some as it involves two timelines: Wang Di’s past and present and two different perspectives: Kevin’s and Wang Di’s. However, I was able to follow through these chapters easily and I found that the plot line and chapters are well organised and was given a thorough planning. From it started right to the resolution, I think it was written beautifully. I love the ending, how every question was answered and was given a nice conclusion. It ended with warmness of family and acceptance. In questi casi leggere mi provoca del male fisico e profondo, ogni pagina è una mattonata all’anima. E sprofondo sempre più giù.The years of torture begins to weigh too heavily....often leading to feelings of unworthiness. That’s were the shame comes in: HEARTBREAKING!!! Don't tell anyone. Not me or your father or any of the neighbours. Especially not your future husband." It was OK, but not great. Two timelines, past and present. Singapore occupied by Japan, girl taken to military brothel, abandoned baby and an old lady now on her death bed telling her secrets to her grandson. I’d highly recommend this book but do take your time with it, as I said previously, this book is not easy. It’s not light, it’s heavy but it’s important for us to know this story. An elderly woman is haunted by her past as a "comfort woman," while many people would prefer to cover up their family member’s tragic history.