"Sometimes, with some dreams, you awake and sense that the dream is ongoing elsewhere." So it is with We Do Not Part, a sublime, fever dream of a book by South Korean author Han Kang (The Vegetarian; Human Acts), translated from the Korean by e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris
Set in contemporary South Korea, We Do Not Part explores themes of human connection and inhuman brutality. Kyungha, a writer left haunted and specter-like since completing her book about a recent uprising, is suddenly contacted by Inseon, a long-time friend who has been hospitalized. Inseon pleads with Kyungha to travel to her isolated island home to look after her beloved pet bird.
This journey leads Kyungha to learn about a massacre on the island decades ago. The newspaper clippings and photographs she finds blend with memories to create a picture that is revealing and hallucinatory. Neither Kyungha nor readers ever fully grasp what is real.
The bleakness of snow permeates the novel, filling it with a palpable chill, one that intensifies with the plot and underscores the bone-chilling horror of the past and the trauma perpetuated on subsequent generations. "There was an accompanying clarity to snow as well, especially slow, drifting snow," Kang writes. From this stark, white backdrop emerge the layered hues of the full story.
We Do Not Part is a novel of discovery in which Kyungha learns profound things about herself, her friend, and the massacre. It is a powerful reminder about the devastating effects of buried secrets and the importance of hope, even during times of extreme darkness. As Kyungha realizes, "It's all right. I have light." -- Grace Rajendran, freelance reviewer