- Overview
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This novel was inspired by a true story of Ssangyong Motor Company's layoff incident. It shows how the balance of power breaks down through Muo, a spy with a mission of breaking up a union, and Ibu, who controls him, and asks questions on how truth appears to those whose faith is shaken.
- Book Intro
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Muo loads boxes onto trucks at a parcel delivery company. Ibu, a newcomer, suggests a new job to him. This new job is nothing other than tailing somebody. Muo is persuaded after hearing that he only needs to follow "Dot," the target, closely. That's how Muo enters the sit-in protest against layoffs at Mori Motors.There, Muo meets Dot. Dot is the labor union leader at Mori Motors and is trusted by many union members. He plays a pivotal role for the labor union, and is the central figure in the protest. As Muo tails Dot, he gets a hunch that his role is to disintegrate the labor union. But a different feeling has been developing in Muo since the moment he first saw Dot. Watching Dot on the platform, with a microphone in hand, giving a speech on future strategy to the union members, he finds himself swayed towards the righteous political action for the first time.Muo takes part in the demonstrations against Mori Motors as both an informer and a spy, transferring information at Ibu's orders and playing part in various dirty schemes designed to disintegrate the labor union. During this process, Muo gets to understand the lives of laborers and Dot in more detail and starts to get confused about his identity and mission. As his inner conflict deepens, Muo meets Long Arms, Dot's colleague and a spy like him. Seeing Long Arms, a member of the union who has betrayed the union, Muo feels ashamed. What choice will Muo make?This novel is based on an actual strike that followed a layoff incident at the Ssangyong Motor Company in 2009. The laid-off workers spent a record 77 nightmarish days locked up in a factory without water, electricity or food. This book depicts the world of the hired, undercover informers inside, planted to break down the powerless strikers even more. Readers can see the world of small, powerless people who have already given into resignation. Through the incidents at the factory, which are already mostly forgotten, we can witness the fight between the good and evil, justice and injustice, and right and wrong. The moment when their fight becomes our fight, the past coughs out the lies and we can become one step closer to the truth.
- About the Author
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Choi Junghwa
(English) Choi Junghwa started her career as a writer when her short novel, Palm Beach, won the Changbi Rookie Novelist Award (literary magazine Creation and Criticism) in 2012. Choi received the 7th Young Writer’s Award with her work The Interview. Novels Choi has written include Everything in Its Own Place, Introverts and An Absent Person. Books Choi has co-written include To Hyunnam, No Understandings for Now and The First Word I Learned.
(Japanese) 2012年『創作と批評』新人小説賞に短編小説『パームビーチ』が入選し、2016年若手作家賞を受賞。著書に、小説集『極めて内向的』、長編小説『ない人』、エッセイ『机上生活者のヨガ』などがある。
