![]() I’ve never read anything set in Korea before, and I must admit, my knowledge on the specifics of the divide between South Korea and North Korea was pretty sketchy prior to reading this. This was quite an arresting little novel. ![]() Elisa Shua Dusapin’s voice is distinctive and unmistakable. As she’s pulled into his vision and taken in by his drawings, she strikes upon a way to finally be seen.Īn exquisitely crafted debut, Winter in Sokcho is a novel about shared identities and divided selves, vision and blindness, intimacy and alienation. But he takes no interest in the Sokcho she knows - the gaudy neon lights, the scars of war, the fish market where her mother works. When she agrees to accompany him on trips to discover an ‘authentic’ Korea, they visit snowy mountaintops and dramatic waterfalls, and cross into North Korea. ![]() One evening, an unexpected guest arrives: a French cartoonist determined to find inspiration in this desolate landscape. A young French-Korean woman works as a receptionist in a tired guesthouse. Bodies are red and raw, the fish turn venomous, beyond the beach guns point out from the North’s watchtowers. It’s winter in Sokcho, a tourist town on the border between South and North Korea. ![]() ![]() Winner of the Prix Robert Walser - a beautiful, unexpected novel from a debut French-Korean author. ![]()
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