This is a novel about growing up - thousands of them are written every year - and about go - a few are written per century. The combination makes it something special. I received the book about a month after it was published in the USA. I had not read any comments about in on rec.games.go. This is strange as I thought it would be a hot item. When I came home I started reading it, and could not stop before I read it all. I expect all serious go players want to read it.
The book is about Korean Go in the sixties. A first kyu at that time there is not we call in Europe a first kyu now. A 'real' first kyu is a player hoping to become professional. From what I guessed from the book roughly the range in playing strenght corresponding with the players of the highest macMahon group of a big European tournament.
As the story is set in Korea one might expect a big cultural gap. There are certainly some echo's of cultural differences, but this difference is minute when it comes to important issues. Any one from any culture with a little knowledge of go can understand all of this book.
Price in Europe euro 15,00