Violets / Kyung-Sook Shin ; translated by Anton Hur.
Language: English Original language: Korean Publication details: London, UK : Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2022.Description: 212 pages ; 22 cmISBN:- 9781474623551
- 1474623557
- 895.735 23
Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item reserves | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Book | Melbourne Athenaeum Library | Fiction | SHI | Available | 064141 |
We join San in 1970s rural South Korea, a young girl ostracised from her community. She meets a girl called Namae, and they become friends until one afternoon changes everything. Following a moment of physical intimacy in a minari field, Namae violently rejects San, setting her on a troubling path of quashed desire and isolation. We next meet San, aged twenty-two, as she starts a job in a flower shop. Here, we are introduced to a colourful cast of characters, including the shop's mute owner, the other florist Su-ae, and the customers that include a sexually aggressive businessman and a photographer, who San develops an obsession for. Throughout, San's moment with Namae lingers in the back of her mind. A story of desire and violence about a young woman who everyone forgot. VIOLETS is a captivating and sensual read, full of tragedy but also beauty in its lush, vibrant prose.
Translated from the Korean.