Please Look After Mother

The million copy Korean bestseller

Kyung-Sook Shin 저자(글)

Orion Publishing Co · 2022년 01월 13일

책 소개

'An authentic, moving story that brings to vivid life the deep family connections that lie at the core of Korean culture'
Gary Shteyngart

'Kyung-Sook Shin's tale... has hit a nerve'
Guardian

'A raw tribute to the mysteries of motherhood'
New York Times

'The most moving and accomplished, and often startling, novel'
Wall Street Journal

When sixty-nine-year-old So-nyo is separated from her husband among the crowds of the Seoul subway station, her family begins a desperate search to find her. Yet as long-held secrets and private sorrows begin to reveal themselves, they are forced to wonder: how well did they actually know the woman they called Mother?

Told through the piercing voices and urgent perspectives of a daughter, son, husband, and mother, PLEASE LOOK AFTER MOTHER is at once an authentic picture of contemporary life in Korea and a universal story of family love.

With an introduction by Banana Yoshimoto
A W&N Essential

작가정보

저자(글) Kyung-Sook Shin

서울예술대학 문예창작과를 졸업하고 스물두 살 되던 해인 1985년 중편 '겨울 우화'로 문예중앙 신인상을 받았다. '풍금이 있던 자리', '깊은 슬픔', '외딴방' 등을 잇달아 출간하며 신경숙 신드롬을 불러일으켰다. 이후 '리진', '어디선가 나를 찾는 전화벨이 울리고', '모르는 여인들'을 출간하며 작품세계를 넓혀왔다. 33개국에 판권이 계약된 밀리언셀러 '엄마를 부탁해'는 뉴욕타임스 베스트셀러, 아마존닷컴의 '올해의 책 베스트 10'(문학 부문)에 선정되었고, 각국 언론의 호평 속에 한국문학의 새로운 지평을 열어가고 있다. 이외에 소설집 '겨울 우화', '감자 먹는 사람들', '딸기밭', 장편소설 '기차는 7시에 떠나네', '바이올렛', 짧은 소설을 모은 'J 이야기', 산문집 '아름다운 그늘', '자거라, 네 슬픔아', 일본 작가 쓰시마 유코와의 서간집 '산이 있는 집 우물이 있는 집' 등이 있다. 1993년 오늘의 젊은 예술가상, 한국일보문학상, 1995년 현대문학상, 1996년 만해문학상, 1997년 동인문학상, 2001년 이상문학상, 2011년 대한민국문화예술상 등을 받았고, '외딴방'이 프랑스의 비평가와 문학기자 들이 선정하는 리나페르쉬 상(Prix de l'inapercu)을, '엄마를 부탁해'가 한국문학 최초로 '맨 아시아 문학상(Man Asian Literary Prize)'를 수상했으며, 2012년 유니세프 한국위원회 친선대사로 임명되었다.

출판사 서평

A moving Korean novel questions the reliability of memory ― FINANCIAL TIMES

Kyung-Sook Shin's tale... has hit a nerve' ― GUARDIAN

shin's prose, intimate, and hauntingly spare, powerfully conveys grief's bewildering immediately . . . A raw tribute to the mysteries of motherhood ― NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

A moving portrayal of the surprising nature, sudden sacrifices, and secret reveries of motherhood ― ELLE

The most moving and accomplished, and often startling, novel in translation I've read in many seasons ... Every sentence is saturated in detail ... It tells an almost unbearably affecting story of remorse and belated wisdom that reminds us how globalism-at the human level-can tear souls apart and leave them uncertain of where to turn ― WALL STREET JOURNAL

A captivating story, written with an understanding of the shortcomings of traditional ways of modern life. It is nostalgic but unsentimental, brutally well observed and, in this flawlessly smooth translation by Chi-Young Kim, it offers a sobering account of a vanished past. ... We must hope there will be more translations to follow ― TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

An extraodinary novel about regret and our relations with those we love ― HARPER'S BAZAAR

Affecting . . . Poignant and psychologically revealing . . . Readers should find resonance in this family story, a runaway bestseller poised for a similar run here ― PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY

Kyung-Sook Shin's tale of an elderly woman who goes missing on the Seoul underground has hit a nerve ― GUARDIAN

Please Look After Mother made me want to phone my mum ― THE TIMES

This story about family, hope and guilt has universal reach. ― Big Issue in the North

Tender, thoughtful and well-crafted... -- Boyd Tonkin ― The Independent

I found what is in one sense a terribly sad book, life-affirming, portraying the sorrows and joys of the parent-child relationship, familiar whether you live in rural South Korea, or South London ― THE TIMES

Full of emotion, this beautifully written book is like nothing I have ever read before and I thoroughly recommend it. ― South Wales Argus

a captivating story, written with an understanding of the shortcomings of traditional ways and modern life. It is nostalgic but unsentimental, brutally well observed and, in this flawlessly smooth translation by Chi-Young Kim, it offers a sobering account of a vanished past... We must hope there are more translations to follow. ― THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

The universal resonance of family life lifts a novel rooted in the experience of Korean modernity to international success. A best-seller in her native South Korea, Shin's Please Look After Mom tells the story of Park So-nyo, a devoted, do-all wife and mother who mysteriously goes missing... the book-Shin's first to be translated into English- is a moving portrayal of the surprising nature, sudden sacrifices, and secret reveries of motherhood. -- Lisa Shea ― Elle

An enormous publishing success in South Korea, this simple portrait of a family shocked into acknowledging the strength and heroic self-sacrifice of the woman at its center is both universal and socially specific... Partly a metaphor for Korea's social shift from rural to urban, partly an elegy to the intensity of family bonds as constructed and maintained by self-denying women, this is tender writing. ― Kirkus Reviews

ndelible... Shin's breathtaking novel is an acute reminder of how easily a family can fracture, how little we truly know one another, and how desperate need can sometimes overshadow even the deepest love.... Already a prominent writer in Korea, Shin makes her English-language debut with what will appeal to all readers who appreciate compelling, page-turning prose. Stay tuned: [Please Look After Mother] should be one of this year's most deserving bestsellers. -- Terry Hong ― Library Journal

what the characters and readers of... South Korean author Kyung-sook Shin discover is that in the mother's absence she is only more powerfully present. ― REUTERS

Kyung-Sook Shin's tale.. has hit a nerve.. it certainlytaps the universal tendency to take one's mother for granted. ― THE GUARDIAN

기본정보

ISBN	9781474621687 ( 1474621686 )
발행(출시)일자	2022년 01월 13일
쪽수	272쪽
크기	196 * 188 * 28 mm / 238 g
총권수	1권
언어	영어