I Went to See My Father

Paperback

신경숙 저자(글) · Hur, Anton 번역

Orion Publishing Co · 2023년 04월 11일

책 소개

Soon after losing her own daughter in a tragic accident, Hon returns to her childhood home in the Korean countryside after many years away. Her father, a cattle farmer, is elderly and requires her care. He is withdrawn, kind but awkward around his own daughter.

As time passes however, Hon realises that her father is far more complex than she ever realised. The discovery of a chest of letters and conversations with his family and friends help Hon piece together the tumultuous story of his life. She learns of her father's experiences during the Korean War and the violence of the 19th April Revolution; of a love affair and involvement in a religious sect; of his sacrifice and heroism and of the phantoms that haunt him. As she unravels secret after secret, Hon grows closer to her father, realising that his lifelong kindness belies a past wrought in both private and national trauma.

More than just the portrait of one man, I Went to See My Father opens a window onto humankind, family, loss and war. It asks us to look at the ones we love, uncover the secrets they keep, and finally see who they really are. Flawlessly rendered by award-winning translator Anton Hur, Kyung-Sook Shin has crafted a novel both affectionate and epic, joyous and lasting.

작가정보

저자(글) 신경숙

Kyung-Sook Shin is one of South Korea's most widely read and acclaimed novelists. She has been honored with the Manhae Grand Prize for Literature, the Dong-in Literature Prize, and the Yi Sang Literary Prize, Mark of Respect Award (2012), and Ho-Am Prize for an Art (2013) as well as France's Prix de l'Inaperçu and Man Asian Literary Prize (2011). She is the author of many prior works of fiction in addition to PLEASE LOOK AFTER MOTHER, which has been published in 41 countries, and was on the New York Times bestselling list. Shin was a visiting scholar at Columbia University from 2010 to 2011. She currently lives in Seoul.

번역 Hur, Anton

역서로 『The Prisoner』 등이 있다.

출판사 서평

This is a book which reminds us that we all suffer from the same wounds, that no individual is free from the pains of their geography and that the greatest losses can only be healed where they all begin -- Defne Suman

A book that makes you hurt all over and smile at the same time. The experience being shared is so immediately relatable, so universal yet Korean, so beautiful and powerful at the same time -- Kim Hyesoon

I Went to See My Father features the author's hallmark emotional richness combined with a precision of language that pierces the soul. Just as Shin's Please Look After Mother gives a voice to the forgotten mother, this novel vividly shows the father as a figure whom we often overlook. Shin guides us on a journey of heartache to literary catharsis -- Sang Young Park

Shin threads together a lyrical family drama and the multi-layered spectrum of Korean history in a compelling epic. It is not only a story of love and pain between father and daughter, but of how memories can heal tragic wounds and restore damaged relationships. A powerful, elegant, page-turner -- J.M. Lee

Gentle yet piercing . . . [I Went to See My Father is a] sensitively crafted family portrait that's both specific and universal and, above all, humane ― Kirkus Reviews

Once more, Shin masterfully glides between quotidian details and astounding feats of survival revealed through multiple voices (older brothers, their mother, a wartime friend) and formats (letters, recordings, long chat messages) to create another universally empathic masterpiece -- Terry Hong ― Booklist, starred review

기본정보

ISBN	9781399611725 ( 1399611720 )
발행(출시)일자	2023년 04월 11일
쪽수	준비중
크기	135 * 215 * 24 mm / 308 g
총권수	1권
언어	영어