Skull Water

A Novel

By: Heinz Insu Fenkl

Narrated by: Nick Martineau

Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

A “magnificent” (Ha Jin), “mesmerizing” (James McBride) and “magical” (Marie Myung-Ok Lee) fever dream of a novel that interweaves the coming-of-age of a 1970s Korean-American boy grappling with his identity and the impact of intergenerational trauma

“A fascinating story of a young mixed-race man caught between two cultures, not knowing what to keep and what to leave behind.” —James McBride, author of The Color of Water

Growing up outside a US military base in South Korea in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, Insu—the son of a Korean mother and a German father enlisted in the US Army—spends his days with his “half and half” friends skipping school, selling scavenged Western goods on the black market, watching Hollywood movies, and testing the boundaries between childhood and adulthood. When he hears a legend that water collected in a human skull will cure any sickness, he vows to dig up a skull in order to heal his ailing Big Uncle, a geomancer who has been exiled by the family to a mountain cave to die.

Insu’s quest takes him and his friends on a sprawling, wild journey into some of South Korea’s darkest corners, opening them up to a fantastical world beyond their grasp. Meanwhile, Big Uncle has embraced his solitude and fate, trusting in otherworldly forces Insu cannot access. As he recalls his wartime experiences of betrayal and lost love, Big Uncle attempts to teach his nephew that life is not limited to what we can see—or think we know.

Largely autobiographical and sparkling with magical realism, Skull Water is the story of a boy coming into his own—and the ways the past haunts the present, in a country on the cusp of modernity, struggling to confront its troubled history. As Insu seeks the wisdom of his ancestors, what he learns, he hopes, will save not just his uncle but himself.

©2023 Heinz Insu Fenkl (P)2023 Spiegel & Grau by Spotify Audiobooks

Critic reviews

“A brilliant novel populated by a wonderful cast of characters and boasting a number of beautifully realized set pieces that will live in the reader’s memory.”—Booklist (starred review)

“Fenkl returns a quarter century after Memories of My Ghost Brother with a mesmerizing narrative of a boy named Insu, whose mother is Korean and whose father served in the U.S. Army. After moving back to Korea from Germany in 1974, teenage Insu finds solace with his friends in rebellious acts like ditching school and selling stolen goods on the black market. Then Insu hears an ancient Korean myth from a monk that imbibing water collected from inside a human skull can cure any disease, prompting him to dig up a corpse in order to find skull water to cure his uncle, Big Uncle, a geomancer who suffers from a gangrenous foot and has been exiled to a cave to die. Fenkl elegantly weaves Insu’s quest, which doesn’t go quite as planned, with a parallel story of Big Uncle in the 1950s during the Korean War. Throughout, the author sustains an otherworldly sense of time and place, and brings to life conceits from Korean folktales (“Past and future—only the words are different, and if one disposes of them, all things become smooth and easy”). It’s a lovely achievement.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“The novel in your hands is something I never knew I’d see, born from things at least two governments hoped to hide. A mixed German Korean boy in 1970s Korea undertakes a quest to save the living with what the dead might know, and he tells us stories across time of this almost-vanished world, and the lives of those thrown away by Korean society and American military forces—his family.  Precious, life altering, rebellious, funny, and full of a necessary truth.”—Alexander Chee, author of The Queen of the Night

Good book

It was an interesting perspective and commingling of worlds and experiences. I appreciated the care for culture and wisdom of elders. The ending gave me goosebumps:)

Good story

Interesting and compelling story but narrator was too fast even when slowed and monotone in delivery.

Interesting and satisfying

I really enjoyed this and couldn’t put it down. Recommend this to anyone who likes history and great stories.