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Title details for We Do Not Part by Han Kang - Wait list

We Do Not Part

by Han Kang
e. yaewon
Audiobook
Pre-release: Expected May 7, 2025
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Brought to you by Penguin.
WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE 2024
Like a long winter's dream, this haunting and visionary new novel from 2024 Nobel Prize winner Han Kang takes us on a journey from contemporary South Korea into its painful history
Beginning one morning in December, We Do Not Part traces the path of Kyungha as she travels from the city of Seoul into the forests of Jeju Island, to the home of her old friend Inseon. Hospitalized following an accident, Inseon has begged Kyungha to hasten there to feed her beloved pet bird, who will otherwise die.
Kyungha takes the first plane to Jeju, but a snowstorm hits the island the moment she arrives, plunging her into a world of white. Beset by icy wind and snow squalls, she wonders if she will arrive in time to save the bird – or even survive the terrible cold which envelops her with every step. As night falls, she struggles her way to Inseon's house, unaware as yet of the descent into darkness which awaits her.
There, the long-buried story of Inseon's family surges into light, in dreams and memories passed from mother to daughter, and in a painstakingly assembled archive documenting a terrible massacre on the island seventy years before.
We Do Not Part is a hymn to friendship, a eulogy to the imagination and above all an indictment against forgetting.
Translated by e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris
'One of the most profound and skilled writers working on the contemporary world stage' Deborah Levy
'A vital voice and a writer of extraordinary humanity. Her work is a gift to us all' Max Porter
'A remarkable novelist who reflects our modern condition with courage, imagination, and keen intelligence' Min Jin Lee
© Han Kang 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    May 7, 2025

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781405962858
      • File size: 220957 KB
      • Duration: 07:40:19

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from September 9, 2024
      Kang (The Vegetarian) delivers an indelible exploration of Korea’s historical traumas through the story of a writer who discovers how her friend’s family was impacted by the 1948–1949 Jeju Massacre, in which U.S.-backed Korean forces killed over 30,000 Jeju Island residents suspected of aiding insurgents. Kyungha spends her days alone in her apartment outside Seoul, where she suffers from migraines and nausea and is plagued by nightmares of a snowy hill where upright tree trunks resembling bodies are submerged by an advancing tide. One morning, she’s unexpectedly contacted by her friend Inseon, who has been hospitalized in Seoul and begs Kyungha to fly to her home on Jeju to care for her bird, Ama, who will not survive long without food. Kyungha travels to Jeju during a fierce snowstorm, and upon her arrival is met by Inseon’s apparition, who tells her about the torture of Inseon’s father after his home was burned by the Korean military, and how Inseon’s mother came home from a cousin’s house to find her entire village executed—except for her brother, whose uncertain fate haunted her for years. In dreamy yet devastating prose, Kang details Inseon’s evolving relationship with her late mother, whom Inseon cared for during her final years as she struggled with dementia and memories of the massacre. The result is a meticulously rendered portrait of friendship, mother-daughter love, and hope in the face of profound loss. Kang is at the top of her game.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Greta Jung performs Nobel Prize winner Han Kang's latest novel, a haunting story focused on the friendship of two women. Kyungha receives an urgent request from her friend, Inseon, to come see her at a hospital in Seoul. Inseon asks Kyungha to care for her bird, Ama, at her home on Jeju Island, and Kyungha arrives just as a snowstorm consumes the island. Jung's wistful narration evokes the dreamlike prose and wintery atmosphere as Kyungha trudges through the snow, trying to reach Ama. Jung beautifully performs Kyungha's first-person narration, embodying the protagonist's thoughtful inner monologue. As the plot unfolds, Jung's pacing is impeccable, and she maintains the mysterious tension of the story until its rapturous conclusion. K.D.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2025, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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