The Island

With its unique style and heart warming stories, The Island has attracted widespread public attention since it was published in Korea in 1991. The bulk of the work recounts childhood memories and has its primary setting the authors island home. The Island is essentially a novel of remembrance. It is also a novel infused with traditional and still living Korean folk beliefs and folk customs. The novel helps the reader gain a sympathetic understanding of the Korean people and culture and also captures a universal element that links it with other traditional cultures. The Island is a book about people who are rather simple and uneducated, even coarse and crude, but who embrace everything life offers, even the shadowy side of it. The Island also reveals that there is no situation in life that absolutely lacks humor and love. While reading this book, people will experience both deep sorrow and joy and sometimes will even burst out in laughter. And their hearts will swell with the realization that they share not only a universal human condition with the Korean people but also a common spirit.