Author: Han Junghyun
Translated by: Emily Yae Won
Publisher: Strangers Press, 2023
Original title: 쿄코와 쿄지, 2021
Link to online store *
“My name is きょうこ, Kyoko, I am Korean … I have something important to tell you.”
A subtly disorienting story of reminiscences between a mother and daughter as they each in their own way struggle with the effects of the mother’s encroaching dementia. As they each try to piece together the fragments of a traumatic history, through doing so they tell a wider story of Korea itself.
About the Author
Han Junghyun kicked off her writing career when she won the Dong-a Ilbo New Writer’s Contest in 2015. Her works include the short story collection Girl Entertainer Yibona and the novels Juliana Tokyo, Let’s Say I’m Marilyn, and Mago: Three female suspects involved in the murder of Professor Yoon Park during the period of the U.S. Army Military Government in Korea. She has received the Today’s Writer Award, the Young Writer’s Award, the Queer Literature Award, and the BUMA Democratic Uprising Literary Award.
About the Translator
Emily Yae Won is the translator of Cheon Heerahn’s ‘Five Preludes & A Fugue’, Kim Soom’s ‘Divorce’, and Hwang Jungeun’s I’ll Go On. Recent translations into Korean include Jessica Au’s Cold Enough for Snow and Maggie Nelson’s The Argonauts.
Source: publisher’s website
LKL says:
A complex story which needs more than one reading to get its full benefit, and which could almost be expanded into something longer, touching on the traumas of Gwangju.
LKL rating: 
External links:
- Review by Paul Fulcher (PF rating: ).
- Entry on Goodreads.com.
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