Snow Hunters

At the time of the Korean War, there was still bad blood between the Koreans and Japanese because of lingering hostility from the prior Japan-Korea "annexation" and 35 years of brutal oppression.

Given that historical context, Snow Hunters gave me crazy feels, seeing how Kiyoshi, an elderly Japanese tailor in Brazil, took in Yohan, a tired and broken refugee and defector of North Korea.  A master at his craft, Kiyoshi takes in Yohan as an apprentice and treats him like a son.  In Brazil, they have all been given a new start and a chance to make amends.

An excerpt (from the beginning of the book, so it's not really spoilerish):

"...Kiyoshi, drinking his wine, asked when his birthday was.  Yohan confessed that he could not remember.

The following week he woke to find a garment bag hanging on his door.  He opened it.  It was a new suit, made of light cotton, the color of sand.  On a notecard, in Japanese, it said: For another year. 

The suit fit him perfectly.  He did not realize until later that afternoon that it was the day he had come to the shop for the first time.

...Years from now, long after Kiyoshi was gone, he would be wearing the same clothes. He would sit beside his worktable in the evenings and mend the tears in the collars and the shirt cuffs himself."

The novel is non-linear: it effectively switches back and forth between his hardship in snowy Korea and life by the warm coast of Brazil.  The intermittent flashbacks show that Yohan just can't seem to let go of his past suffering and losses, which impedes his ability to fully engage deeper relationships (with Peixe, Bia, and Santi, the Brazilians he befriends) in order to overcome his loneliness. However, he slowly makes progress as he not just makes a living, but a home for himself.

The prose is very minimalist; the sentences are short, and the chapters brief.  It's a quick read and is a very subtle and reflective book.  Very 'slice of life', so if you're looking for humor/action/witty quotes/fast-paced plot, you're not going to find it here.  However, give this one a shot.  It will tug at your heartstrings as you empathize with compassion, fear, and love for Yohan.