Han Kang sets this novel in the South Korean city of Gwangju in May 1980, when soldiers fired on citizens protesting military rule. The central figure is Dong-ho, a middle-school boy who helps volunteers arrange the dead in a gym so that families can identify them. Later chapters follow people connected to him, including a friend who was killed, an editor dealing with censors, a prisoner who was tortured, and the boy's own mother, and each reveals what the uprising left behind in the survivors.
Pick this up if you want fiction that treats historical atrocity with restraint and attention to the body. It will interest readers of world literature and those wanting to understand Korea's path to democracy.
Deep, inward-looking, contemplative, open-ended and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Wisdom Collector. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 2017
- Publisher
- Publicações Dom Quixote
- ISBN
- 9789722063234
- Language
- PT
