The Old Garden

by Hwang Sok-yong, Jay Oh (Translator)

Overview

Political prisoner Hyun Woo is freed after eighteen years to find no trace of the world he knew. The friends with whom he shared utopianist dreams are gone. His Seoul is unrecognizably transformed and aggressively modernized. Yoon Hee, the woman he loved, died three years ago. A broken man, he drifts toward a small house in Kalmoe, where he and Yoon Hee once stole a few fleeting months of happiness while fleeing the authorities. In the company of her diaries, he relives and reviews his life, trying to find meaning in the revolutionary struggle that consumed their youth—a youth of great energy and optimism, victim to implacable history.
Hyun Woo weighs the worth of his own life, spent in prison, and that of the strong-willed artist Yoon Hee, whose involvement in rebel groups took her to Berlin and the fall of the wall. With great poignancy, Hwang Sok-yong grapples with the immortal questions—the endurance of love, the price of a commitment to causes—while depicting a generation that sacrificed youth, liberty, and often life, for the dream of a better tomorrow.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781583228999
Publisher:	Seven Stories Press
Publication date:	09/01/2009
Pages:	544
Sales rank:	1,079,445
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.26(h) x 1.69(d)

About the Author

HWANG SOK-YONG is one of the contemporary masters of Korean literature. His work, which grapples with the troubled history of his divided country, has resulted in his imprisonment, his exile, and the rare achievement of a wide international readership. Hwang’s novels in English includeThe Old Garden, a tragic love story set against the backdrop of the end of the Cold War and South Korea's political revolution of the eighties; The Guest, based on the true account of a violent clash between Communist and Christian neighbors in a Korean village town; and The Shadow of Arms, inspired by his experience as a Korean soldier in the Vietnam War. Some of his recent bestsellers in Korea, where Hwang is among that country’s most popular writers, includeBaridegi (Princess Bari) and Gaebapbaragibyeol (The Evening Star), a coming of age novel that Hwang wrote as a blog.

Editorial Reviews

"Hwang Sok-yong has given contemporary world literature a beautiful gift. Written in a voice that is utterly humanistic, The Old Garden combines multiple narratives that resonate on the levels of the historical, political, and aesthetic. Hwang's masterful command of the novelistic form is evident in his ability to be simultaneously intimate and worldly. Without a doubt, The Old Garden will be seen as the definitive novel of Korea's Gwangju generation." —Jeff Shroeder, guitarist for the Smashing Pumpkins and English PhD candidate at UCLA


“Hwang Sok-yong is undoubtedly the most powerful voice of the novel in East Asia.” –Nobel laureate Kenzaburō Ōe


“The Old Garden vividly depicts the tumult of Korean history and the individuals caught in its demands. Hwang Sok-yong, one of South Korea's most important modern writers, poignantly shows us that history is also a story of how individuals live, love, and sacrifice in the tumult of time.” –Krys Lee, author of Drifting House


“Hwang Sok-yong is the most committed, politically active writer of all those who have been translated from the Korean in recent years.” –Liberation


“Hwang Sok-yong is one of South Korea's preeminent authors.” –Der Spiegel

From the Publisher

In his most autobiographical work, veteran Korean novelist and former political prisoner Sok-Yong writes about a recently freed prisoner reflecting on his life through the letters of an old lover. Following an 18-year sentence, Oh Hyun Woo discovers that his former lover, Han Yoon Hee, has died. Oh returns to Kalmae, where they lived together, and discovers Yoon Hee's journals and letters to him. From there, the narrative combines Oh's memories and Yoon Hee's, often flowing seamlessly between the two. Yoon Hee's letters to Oh are layered in rich details and life-changing revelations, suggesting she knows all along that these letters will one day be all that's left of their relationship. Sok-Yong's attention to detail is especially powerful in Oh's descriptions of prison life and returning to the outside world, like “waking up from a nap at the end of a summer day when the sun is setting.” Oh and Yoon Hee's languid, heartbreaking tales of loss and waiting complement each other beautifully, evoking the spirit of Love in the Time of Solitude. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly