We Do Not Part - by Han Kang (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: THE NEW YORKER, TIME, THE ECONOMIST, THE GUARDIAN, SLATE, VULTURE, ELLE, KIRKUS REVIEWS, BOOK RIOT, THE GLOBE AND MAIL, PEN AMERICA, CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY, BBC - ONE OF BOOKPAGE'S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR

Han Kang's most revelatory book since The Vegetarian, We Do Not Part tells the story of a friendship between two women while powerfully reckoning with a hidden chapter in Korean history--"[A] masterpiece" (The Boston Globe)

"A haunting exploration of friendship amid historical trauma."--Time

"A novel that is both disquieting and entrancing."--The Economist

One winter morning in Seoul, Kyungha receives an urgent message from her friend Inseon to visit her at the hospital. Inseon has injured herself in an accident, and she begs Kyungha to return to Jeju Island, where she lives, to save her beloved pet--a white bird called Ama. A snowstorm hits the island when Kyungha arrives. She must reach Inseon's house at all costs, but the icy wind and squalls slow her down as night begins to fall. She wonders if she will arrive in time to save the animal--or even survive the terrible cold that envelops her with every step. Lost in a world of snow, she doesn't yet suspect the vertiginous plunge into darkness that awaits her at her friend's house.

Blurring the boundaries between dream and reality, We Do Not Part powerfully brings to light the lost voices of the past to save them from oblivion. Both a hymn to an enduring friendship and an argument for remembering, it is the story of profound love in the face of unspeakable pain--and a celebration of life, however fragile it might be.

Review Quotes

"A haunting exploration of friendship amid historical trauma."--TIME

"A novelist and poet of tremendous feeling and precision . . . We Do Not Part [is] a beautiful, mysterious story built around . . . a pogrom on Jeju Island after the Korean War, told from the perspective of three women characters."--The New Yorker

"One of the world's most important writers."--Los Angeles Times

"Astonishing . . . [We Do Not Part] is a rewarding endeavor, especially for readers familiar with Han's oeuvre who can recognize it as a mosaic that artfully pieces together her long-simmering ideas on reckoning with historical atrocities, fighting to expose state-concealed truths and finding connection in our shared humanity despite inevitable suffering."--San Francisco Chronicle

"[Kang] draws American readers into foreign calamities that their own forebears had a hand in creating, and then offers a very limited kind of redemption--the chance to discover, for themselves, that legacy of shame."--The Atlantic

"[We Do Not Part] blows open the lid on a long-forgotten chapter of Korean history, celebrating the resiliency of life in the face of immense tragedy."--Harper's Bazaar

"It is pain--whether from large-scale acts of violence or quietly self-inflicted wounds--that gives [Han's] writing its uncomfortable vitality."--The Wall Street Journal

"[Han's] abilities are at their most undeniable and radiant."--BookPage

"A dream-narrative of history, remembrance, and friendship rendered in [Han's] complex, lyrical prose."--Literary Hub

"Poetic language expertly describes the mysterious geography of Jeju as Han movingly illustrates how the massacre affected survivors as well as subsequent generations. The memory of a devastating episode that must not be forgotten is revived."--Library Journal, starred review

"[We Do Not Part gifts] audiences with tragic terror, luminous insight, and ethereal glimmers of hope."--Booklist, starred review

"Even through the veil of translation, the quiet intricacy of the author's prose glitters throughout . . . a mysterious novel about history and friendship [that] offers no easy answers."--Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"A visionary novel about history, trauma, art and its tremendous costs. Han Kang is one of the most powerfully gifted writers in the world. With each work, she transforms her readers, and rewrites the possibilities of the novel as a form."--Katie Kitamura, author of Intimacies

"A disquietingly beautiful novel about the impossibility of waking up from the nightmare of history. Hang Kang's prose, as delicate as footprints in the snow or a palimpsest of shadows, conjures up the specters haunting a nation, a family, a friendship. Unforgettable."--Hernan Diaz, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Trust

"Haunting and dreamlike, this is a novel of secrets and silences."--Silvia Moreno-Garcia, bestselling author of Mexican Gothic and The Seventh Seal of Salome

About the Author

e. yaewon is based in Korea and translates from and into Korean, including titles by Hwang Jungeun, Deborah Levy, and Samuel Beckett.

Paige Aniyah Morris divides her time between the United States and Korea. Recent translations include works by Pak Kyongni, Ji-min Lee, and Chang Kang-myoung.