- Overview
-
In the year of 1966, the descendants of the Independence Movement fighters and the pro-Japanese collaborators clash in the North and South Korean Reunification Office of the United Nations.
- Book Intro
-
It is 1966, about twenty years after the liberation of Korea from the Japanese colonialism. In a place called “Byeoksu Mansion,” in Ogindong, Seoul, the protagonist, Yi Hae-dong, whose father was a fighter in the Korean Independence Movement, works as a staff interpreter for the United Nations Commission for the Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea (UNCURK). This spacious place, which belonged formerly to Yun Deok-yeung, a pro-Japanese collaborator, is now being used as office for UNCURK. One day Yun Weon-seop, the youngest daughter of Yun Deok-yeung, appears before Yi Hae-dong, the petit bourgeois young man who complacently believes his life is not too bad—getting paid in dollar and all that. After being released from the Seodaemun Prison, Yun Weon-seop returns to Byeoksu Mansion and discloses a secret room that no one knew about; she then reasserts her position among the diplomats dispatched to the UNCURK. Yi Hae-dong is forced to translate the shameless words of the audaciously triumphant Yun and he is slowly robbed of equilibrium in his life.
At the Byeoksu Mansion, which is an enemy property to Yi and an inherited house for Yun, the lives of these two people, who were handed down opposing values, are delineated through an exciting and dynamic narrative. Then on the Arbor Day, a fire takes place there...
The story of Eternal Heritage began with a picture in the author’s aged photography album—that showed her with her grandmother in front of an unfamiliar building that had a European tower and impressionable windows lined with a jagged pattern; her curiosity was piqued from this immense, beautiful, and modern architecture. The building, which was demolished, turns out to have been built by the notorious Japanese collaborator, Yun Deok-yeung, and was named after his pseudonym. It is quite ironic that this place, that became government owned, was used as the headquarters of the United Nations Commission for the Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea after Korea became independent. It was torn down in the spring of 1973 and was fast forgotten. But to the author who was born and still resides in the neighborhood, its entire history is unforgettable. After the discovery of the picture in 2012, the existence and the annihilation of the grand mansion captivated her mind and aided by her imagination, a completely new story is born.
- About the Author
-
Sim Yun Kyung
(English) In 2002, she became the seventh winner of the Hankyoreh Literary prize for her autobiographical coming-of-age novel, My Beautiful Garden; thus began her writing career. In 2005, she received the 6th Muyeung Literary Prize for “The Moon’s Altar.” She is the author of the following full-length novels, Yi Hyeon’s Love Story, Love is Running, and Love Completes, Seol-I and her novel in serialization, The People of Seorabeol, and a children’s book, Report on Reconciliation.
(Japanese) 大学卒業後、しばらく会社員生活を経て、1998年から小説を書き始める。2002年、自伝的成長小説『私の美しい庭』で第7回ハンギョレ文学賞を受賞し、作品活動を開始。2005年『月の祭壇』で第6回ムヨン文学賞を受賞し、長編小説『イ・ヒョンの恋』、『徐羅伐(ソラバル)の人々』、『愛が走る』、『愛が満ちる』、童話『和解する報告書』などを発表した。
