"'Can a nation disappear forever?' . . . In] a tale of collective loss, political revolution and the individual quest for self-determination . . . Kim brings us the souls caught up on the ground of this larger drama." -- Minneapolis Star Tribune

In 1904, facing war and the loss of their nation, more than a thousand Koreans leave their homes for the promise of land in unknown Mexico. After a long sea voyage, these emigrants -- thieves and royals, priests and soldiers, orphans and entire families -- discover that they have been sold into indentured servitude.

Aboard the ship,...