- Overview
-
This is a collection of letters with genuine communication transcending generations.
- Book Intro
-
Poet Mah Chonggi and musician Lucid Fall met for the first time in 2007 through a letter. Mah Chonggi is a doctor and poet who channeled his melancholy and longing experienced while living overseas into poetry, and Lucid Fall is a chemist and musician who channeled his loneliness into his guitar while working at a lab in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The two exchanged letters for two years before finally meeting in Seoul in the spring of 2009. Their letters were published in book-form (A Long, Private Meeting) and well-received by many readers, and they even appeared in high school textbooks as an example of true communication that transcends generations.
Five years pass. The two men, who remained in intermittent contact, began exchanging letters again in the spring of 2013. Their letters are compiled in this second book, The Distance Between Us, containing 40 letters written between then and spring of 2014.
As an evolution to their first set of exchanges where they slowly got to know one another, the second book features warm, profound dialogue that encompasses all aspects of life, from music and literature to Korea, art, relationships, family, nature, and travel. The two men comfort each other's souls through letters that are as beautiful as their poetry and music.
- About the Author
-
Ma Jonggi
Ma Jonggi, a poet and doctor, made his literary debut in 1959 during his first year at medical school, announcing Anatomy Class and I Am Also Standing as a Flower in the literary magazine Hyundai Literature. He received the 1st Yonsei Literary Award with his first poetry collection published in 1960, Quiet Return, and won various other awards including the Korean Literary Author Award, the Pyeonwoon Literary Award, the Lee San Literary Award, the Dongseo Literary Award, the Hyundai Literary Award, and the Haesan Literary Award.
Lucid Fall