- Overview
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The sad, mysterious, and gut-wrenching story that happens to a father and his son for seven years. With turns and twists created from the writer’s impeccable research and awe-inspiring imagination, the story makes an unforgettable impression on readers.
- Book Intro
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With two different narratives woven in the format of a frame story, the book begins with a man who is driven insane after his killing of a little girl in an accident seven years ago, and the story also introduces the girl’s father, who takes justice into his own hands by seeking revenge for his daughter’s death on the murderer’s son. The murderer tries to protect his son, but in order to do so, he ends up making the worst choice, which spirals into unforeseen tragedy.
A young man comes face to face with the burden of being a murderer’s son when he hears the news that his father will be executed for the crime. When the news carries the son back to that fateful day seven years ago, he realizes he is still trapped in that time. Not only that, but someone is also coming for him, and that someone is closer to him than ever before.
We live our lives often forgetting what is important to us. In this book, the writer asks us a question: If we were in the father’s place and life threw us a curveball all of sudden, what choice would we make? The characters in the story kick and scream against life and against being pushed into utter ruin, and as we read their stories and about how one misjudgment pushes them into the abyss, we are forced to re-examine our own lives. We are drawn to the story because it is more about whydunit, which was the writer’s very intention behind writing the book―to look into the mystery of the human heart. Once the writer begins her story, she does not stop or hesitate. The story sweeps readers into a fast-paced narrative which seems to have no brakes. With the unique setting of the story and characters, and with world-building that is flawless and utterly convincing, this rollercoaster ride of a story will surprise readers at every turn.
- About the Author
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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。