Coming in time for London Book Fair 2014: The Investigation by Lee Jung-myung. Inspired by a true story, the novel is described as “a captivating mystery and an epic lament for lost freedom and humanity in the darkest of times.” According to The List, the story is based on the life of “poet Yun Dong-ju who died in 1945 at the age of 27 from inhumane medical experiments conducted on him in a prison in Fukuoka.” The Korean literature magazine continues: “this novel mesmerizes the readers with its prison setting, complex characters, solid structure, and foreshadowing through a wide range of literary devices. Readers who have enjoyed Marcus Zusak’s The Book Thief or Stephen King’s Shawshank Redemption will also like The Investigation.”
Sadly, I can’t find any detail of the identity of the translator on the publisher’s website (Panmacmillan), or on Amazon or The List.
Available from Panmacmillan’s Mantle imprint from 27 March 2014. If you google, you can find reviews online already.
Update: Mantle has informed us via Twitter that the translator is the excellent Kim Chi-young, who is also responsible for translations such as Shin Kyung-sook’s Please Look After Mother and Kim Young-ha’s Your Republic is Calling You. We are in safe hands, then.
@TranslatedWorld The translator for #TheInvestigation is Chi-Young Kim @panmacmillan @lklinks @londonkoreanist
— Sophie Orme (@Sophiemorme) January 28, 2014