The Wanderer's Curse: A Memoir

Jennifer Hope Choi

A dazzling, whip-smart debut from a daughter who grapples with her mother’s late-in-life itinerance to understand her own inclination to wander.

In 2022, Jennifer Hope Choi stumbled upon the concept of yeokmasal—a supposedly inheritable affliction that causes one to roam far from home. When Choi asked her Korean mother about the “curse,” Umma replied nonchalantly, “Oh yeah. I have that.” It shouldn’t have been a surprise: since 2007, Umma had moved from California to seven states, from Alaska to Florida. Where had the no-nonsense open-heart surgery nurse gone, and why? Once Choi’s own life implodes, she finds herself shuttling from Brooklyn to South Carolina and Oklahoma. As these singular women drift apart and return to each other over time, Choi examines where and to whom she belongs, pondering everything from a mystical Korean dog breed and cults to Korean American golfers and contemporary art. Through glimmering prose and a laugh-out-loud sensibility, The Wanderer’s Curse explores what might be gained from living in residence with uncertainty, what we wish we could leave behind, and how we move on.