A Life Lived on Three Continents

A Life Lived on Three Continents is narrated by Hanay Kang, whose life was transformed by the fallout of war in Korea and life anew in America. Hanay was born in Busan in 1944 and educated in Busan and Seoul, South Korea. Tradition clashed with modernity, economic opportunities were slim, and the fiercely independent Hanay migrated halfway across the world – to New York City. She learned English and worked late hours to earn tuition. Three years later, she worked at the United Nations as a guide and Pan Am Airways to travel the world. Then, when she least expected it, a man with intense gazing eyes descended on her life on a Pan Am Transpacific flight, and a passionate romance followed. She married the man who would change her life and built an interracial and blended family. They moved to the United Arab Emirates in 1979 with their two young children and lived and worked there for seven years. She founded a furniture and interior design career that spread its roots to Manhattan while her husband established a law practice in the Arabian Peninsula. The life she built took her across the globe, from South Korea to New York to the Emirates and back to New York. Spanning three continents – and complete with exotic places and unforgettable characters – the reader will discover a survivor's life journey of love and loss, success and failure, despair and triumph, all touching on the very meanings of home, family and self-preservation. After a devastating house fire destroys their home in the Hudson Valley with every memento of their lives. Hanay finds purpose in designing and rebuilding their home, which ultimately helps her overcome the tragedy of the fire. She learns life is a precious gift with all its downfalls and difficulties. She completes her memoir to share her eventful life, the exotic places her family lived and traveled to, and the crises she overcame with readers.