Skull Water begins with teenage Insu in 1974. He is returning to his mother's homeland of Korea due to his German-American military father's redeployment, after living abroad for much of his childhood. Insu soon meets his mother's brother, Big Uncle, with whom he finds a spiritual connection that prompts his transformation into a man. Through this bond, along with the relationships Insu develops with people in the military and local community, he comes to terms with the realities of death and what it takes to seek a life that extends beyond merely surviving the impacts of war. Author Heinz Insu Fenkl interlaces Big Uncle's memories from the Korean War in 1950 with the adventures experienced by Insu and his friends at the military base in the 1970s as they grapple with accepting tragedies that befall them and their loved ones.

Mystical realism and folklore are woven into the novel, ...