(English) The Struggles of a Girl Fated to Die Young

“I can kill my death.”

The Award Winner of the 1st Park Ji Ri Literature Award

The first book written by a rookie writer, Hyun Ho Jeong

The writer brought the motif from the traditional folk tale, ‘A Tale of a Boy Fated to Die Young’, which characters wish for longer life to old people controlling their life. The existing tales to extend life by exchanging for things and ceremonies to God used to focus on only boys based on the Korean society under male-dominated culture. On the contrary, we do not know well about tales to extend our life for girls. The main character of this book written by Hyun Ho Jeong is an independent and self-regulating girl to seek the meaning of death philosophically and find out social conditions by facing God. 

Gu Soo Jung, a 19-year-old girl, heard that she was supposed to be dead before the age of 20 from the half-God, Bukdu. Therefore, she decided to go on a journey to extend her life on her own. Right before leaving, aunt Eun Joo who works as a fortuneteller gave her 100 pieces of Baeksulki, the Korean white rice cake. Soo Jung succeeded in escaping from the reality when she met a drunken man, the first obstacle, at the subway station in her neighborhood. She could run away from the crisis by climbing onto the back of a half-lion and half-dog with wings, and she continued flying toward another world. When she arrived at the dry lake surrounded by black mountains, she realized that the name of the dog was ‘Tomorrow’. And then, she met Yian. Yian was also 19 years old but he was on a journey toward death unlike Soo Jung. Both visited several places together, such as the rock desert, the village near the desert, and crossed the river to a small island. By doing so, they both carried their missions to want what they each wanted while visiting unfamiliar places. The list handed by the death God contained a pharmacist, a cleaner, a snow-human, a mosquito-human, and scarecrow-human, etc., and only after they killed these in the list, they could reach their goals – life for Soo Jung and death for Yian. Can this girl, Soo Jung, who almost fated to die young, kill her death and survive in the end? This charming book makes readers difficult to realize what is real or what is fantasy while reading, and the book shows a new phase at the very last page. 

“나는 나의 죽음을 죽일 수 있다.”

1회 박지리문학상 수상작

신인작가 현호정의 첫 책

열아홉 살 소녀 구수정은 반신 북두北斗로부터 ‘스무 살 전에 단명할 운명’이라는 예언을 듣는다. 수정은 스스로 삶을 이어 나가기 위해 긴 여정을 떠난다. 수정이 떠나기 직전, 점집에서 일하는 은주 아줌마는 백설기 백 조각을 싸준다. 수정은 자신이 살던 G시의 지하철역에서 첫 번째 장애물, 술에 취한 남자를 만나며 급격히 현실계를 벗어난다. 때마침 나타난 날개 달린 사자 개의 등에 올라 위기에서 벗어난 수정은, 그대로 날아 다른 세계로 계속해서 이동한다. 검은 산들이 둘러싼 분지에 도착해 백설기를 나눠 먹다 수정은 개의 이름이 ‘내일’이라는 것을 알게 된다. 그리고 그곳에서 ‘이안’을 만난다. 이안은 수정처럼 열아홉 살이고 수정과 반대로 ‘죽기 위한 여정’ 중에 있다. 두 사람은 저승의 바위 사막과 사막 근처의 마을과 강을 건너 작은 섬에 이르는 등 이계의 낯선 풍경을 전진하며 각자 원하는 것을 얻기 위해 미션을 수행해 나간다. 저승 신이 그들에게 건넨 명부에는 악사, 청소부, 눈-인간, 모기-인간, 허수아비-인간 등이 그려져 있고, 이들을 죽여야만 수정은 삶에, 이안은 죽음에 이를 수 있다. 곧 죽을 운명이었던 구수정은 자신의 죽음을 죽이고, 결국 살아낼 수 있을까. 읽는 내내 현실계와 이계를 넘나들듯 꿈과 현실을 착각하게 만드는 이 매혹적인 소설은 마지막 장에 이르면 새로운 국면을 맞는다.