- Overview
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This novel contains nine stories about the memory of despair and solitude.
- Book Intro
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This is the third collection of short stories by Cho Haejin, who received the Shin Dong-yeop Literary Award (2013), Young Artist Award (2014), and Lee Hyo-seok Literary Award (2016), and established herself as a reliable writer in the literary world. This book is a collection of 9 stories published from 2013 to 2016 including Lee Hyo-seok Literary Award Winner Walker's Happiness, which received favorable reviews as a new reminder of "what literary imagination is like in the era" and "capturing the problem of alienation and anxiety in personal life." In particular, in this collection, the author delves deeper into the topic she has long been interested in, "what effect would historical violence have on individuals?" (Han Ki Wook), which become more salient in the Sewol ferry incident. She talks about the memories of despair and solitude saying "It is absent as it is gone, but it is also present as we remember it" (Goodbye to Things, p. 69), and "the survivor must remember the victim" (Escort of The Light, p. 16). The "escort of the light," delivered by Cho Haejin, will convey warmth to those who live alone, even to the truths we must remember while lost in the darkness.
"Her story has not started yet, but I already knew. When it comes to the short moment of light that folds up in the back of a closet, in a desk drawer, or in an empty bottle, but spreads out all at once when you press the shutter, when it comes to the ecstasy of going around a different world every time you take a picture, I already remember everything. Kwon started the story that I already knew. The sunlight reflected in the shop window of the musical instrument store only shined on her." (Escort of the Light, p. 32).
- About the Author
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Jo Haejin
Cho Haejin (F) was born in 1976 in Seoul. She joined the literary world in 2004 by receiving the New Writer Award by Moonyejoongang. Short story collections written by Cho include City of Angels, See You on Thursday, and Escort of Light, and full-length novels include To the Wonderful Dream, I Met Loh Kiwan, A Forest Nobody Has Seen and Passing Through the Summer. She has won the Shin Dong-yup Literary Award, Lee Hyo-seok Literary Award, Kim Yong-ik Novel Award, Baek Shin-ae Literary Award, and Equality Literary Award.
- Award
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Lee Hyo-seok Literary Award