Summary

Flashlight opens with a scene on a stone breakwater beside a rented house by the sea. Louisa walks with her father. He carries a flashlight even though evening light remains and keeps her hand in his long after she no longer needs it. The image introduces a family habit of vigilance that looks like love and also like rule. Inside the small house Louisa’s mother rests and seems withdrawn; she is present but apart. The child understands the house as a place of soft voices, closed doors, and careful routines. Food is tested before it is served. Walks follow narrow paths. Night is approached as an event that must be prepared for rather than allowed to arrive.

The narrative then shifts to Seok, a boy in Korea during the period of Japanese rule. At school he answers to Hiroshi and excels in...