Han Kang
Hamish Hamilton
20 February 2025 (2021)
240
eBook - PDF
Literary Fiction
ARC via NetGalley
One morning in December, Kyungha is called to her friend Inseon’s hospital bedside. Airlifted to Seoul for an operation following a wood-chopping accident, Inseon is bedridden and begs Kyungha to take the first plane to her home on Jeju Island to feed her pet bird, who will quickly die unless it receives food.
Unfortunately, as Kyungha arrives a snowstorm hits. Lost in a world of snow, she begins to wonder if she will arrive in time to save the bird – or even survive the terrible cold that envelops her with every step. But she doesn't yet suspect the darkness which awaits her at her friend's house.
There, the long-buried story of Inseon's family surges into light, in dreams and memories passed from mother to daughter, and in a painstakingly assembled archive, documenting the terrible massacre seventy years before that saw 30,000 Jeju civilians murdered.
I have read all Han Kang's works currently translated into English and have enjoyed them all, but I think We Do Not Part might be my favourite so far. Like Human Acts, this book focuses on a terrible historical event, in this case one that took place on Jeju island in the late 1940s. As such there is a lot of stark darkness within the work in terms of the subject matter, but this is contrasted with the lyrical poetics of the prose. Thus we drift back and forth between the terrible details of the events, more of which come to the fore as the book progresses, and the atmospheric description and philosophical pondering of the narrator as she navigates the emotions of her own life and those she experiences as she uncovers the story of events of Jeju, to which her friend has a personal connection. Elements of Human Acts weave through this work, and I feel that Kyungha and Han Kang sometimes overlap in this regard. This is a book both beautiful and horrifying, and I think that's where Han Kang's strength lies as a writer: the way she can combine the two. There is a deep sense of humanity in all her works, and the exploration of themes that are really universal, though seemingly focused on her country's history. I certainly hope more of her works will be translated in the future (or that my Korean will improve enough to read them in the original), and I am giving this book five stars.
I received this book as a free eBook ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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