- Overview
-
28 is a story about the desire for humans and all living things to survive and desperate rescue efforts over 28 days in a city called Hwayang, which means scorching sun.
- Book Intro
-
Hwayang city, with a population of 2,900,000, is located near the capital. It's here that an infectious disease breaks out. The first infected person is a middle-aged man working in the dog breeding business. This man, who had been sick with swine flu in the past, is bitten by a dog and afterwards develops symptoms that include swollen red eyes and bleeding all over his body, including in his lungs. The infectious disease first spreads to the 119 rescue workers who come to help this man. Then the eyes of the doctors and nurses in the emergency room turn red and they die within a few days. Sujin, a nurse at the emergency room, and Gijun, a firefighter, start to realize the seriousness of the situation. Also in Hwayang is Jaehyeong, the first Korean to participate in the Iditarod, a famous dogsled race in Alaska. But he lost his dogs, which he had raised like members of his own family, to wild wolves in a snow storm. Returning to Hwayang after this trauma, he now manages Dream Land, an abandoned dog rescue center in the woods. But Dream Land is about to close down due to a negative report by Yunju claiming that Jaehyeong exterminated his dogs during the dogsled race in Alaska. This is the result of Donghae's scheme, who lost his dog Cookie to Jaehyeong. A wolfdog, Lingo, who barely escaped the outbreak of the mysterious "red eye" disease, wanders around Hwayang city and meets a female dog, Star, near Jaehyeong's Dream Land. Lingo senses that Star is his soul mate, as wolf-dog hybrids usually have just one partner for their entire lives. The infectious disease spreads at high speed. There is a flood of patients to the hospital Sujin works at. Even hospital staff start to die. Gijun can't even go home because he thinks he might also be a carrier of the "red eye" disease, so he tries to send his wife and daughter outside Hwayang city. But a national emergency is proclaimed and martial law is put into effect to contain the spread of the illness. The city is blocked off by the military. As a result, Hwayang descends into a hell where reason gradually disappears...
Jeong You-jeong graphically describes the ruined city, which became an abyss in just seconds, based on a very realistic view of the world and characters.The story of humans who never give up hope in the midst of fury and despair,which is unraveled through the lively depiction and dramatic story line move us.
- About the Author
-
Jeong Youjeong
(English) Jeong Youjeong is a novelist who won the first Segye Young Adults Literary Award for My Life's Spring Camp, and the fifth Segye Literature Award for Shoot Me in the Heart. Her following novels, Seven Years of Darkness, 28, and The Good Son have been selected as Book of the Year by different bookstores and newspapers. Read and loved by international readers, her books have been translated into more than 20 languages including English, French, German, Finnish, Chinese, Japanese, and Portuguese. She has also published collections of her essays: Jeong You Jeong’s Fantasy Roaming of Himalayas, and Stories about Stories-telling. In 2019, she published her latest novel, Jinyi, Jini.
(Japanese) 長編小説『人生のスプリングキャンプ』で第1回世界青少年文学賞を、『私の心臓を撃て』で第5回世界文学賞を受賞。長編小説『7年の夜』、『28』、『種の起源』は主要メディアや書店で「今年の本」に選ばれ、大きな話題を集めた。英米圏をはじめ、フランス、ドイツ、日本など海外20カ国以上で翻訳出版され、多くの読者に愛されている。他にもエッセイ『チョン・ユジョンのヒマラヤ幻想放浪』、『チョン・ユジョン物語を語る』がある。2019年に長編『ジニ、ジニ』を出版し、2021年に新作『完全な幸福』を出版した。