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- W&N
- W&N
Runtime
10hr 0m
South Korea, Of specific Lesbian interest, Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), Fiction in translation
A neglected young woman experiences the violence and isolation of contemporary Korean society, from the two million copy bestselling author of PLEASE LOOK AFTER MOTHER
'Dreamy, immersive and evocative' TLS
'Darkly beautiful' Frances Cha
'Strange and gripping' Guardian
San is twenty-two and alone when she happens upon a job at a flower shop in Seoul's bustling city centre.
Haunted by childhood rejection, she stumbles through life - painfully vulnerable, stifled, and unsure. She barely registers to others, especially by the ruthless standards of 1990s South Korea.
But over the course of one summer, San meets a curious cast of characters: the nonspeaking shop owner, a brash co-worker, aggressive customers and an enigmatic magazine photographer. Fuelled by a quiet desperation to jump-start her life, she dares, briefly, to dream of connection in an unforgiving world.
Translated by Anton Hur
More books by Kyung-Sook Shin
Praise for Violets: From the bestselling author of Please Look After Mother
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Darkly beautiful, Violets explores the toll of abandonment and the relentless marginalization of a helpless young woman . . . Shin writes of the cruelty and dangers of disempowerment, and an ensuing spiral of despair
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Shin Kyung Sook tells us a story which takes place both in a foreign land and in a very familiar space in our hearts. Human beings' everlasting agony of "longing to belong" presents itself in every page of this book with intensity and with beauty. A subtle, deep, unique work of true literature
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Violets is a moving delve into a lonely psyche, with writing raw and sophisticated, tenderhearted and clear-eyed. Vividly translated by Anton Hur, Shin Kyung-sook's novel is also an intimate, sideways portrait of Seoul through the eyes of a rural outsider who roams the bright lights and big city not in pursuit of ambitious dreams, but seeking care and human touch
Kyung-Sook Shin
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'InaperA u 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.
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