In the U.S., the Korean War has been called "the forgotten war" — a sideshow in geopolitics and American novels such as Richard Condon's "The Manchurian Candidate" or, more recently, Philip Roth's "Indignation." The conflict, which lasted from 1950 to 1953, never had an official peace treaty and saw no territorial gains for either the North or South. Not surprisingly, "Who won the Korean War?" is a frequent search on the internet.

The Kinship of Secrets, by Eugenia Kim.
304 pages