Lit in Translation

Whale

고래 · Gorae

Cheon Myeong-kwan (천명관, born 1964)

Translated by Chi-Young Kim

English editions

In English

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In the first two parts, Geumbok leaves her mountain home and climbs to wealth as a businesswoman in a provincial town, surrounded by a crowd of characters whose affairs, accidents and changes of luck pile up around her. The third part belongs to her daughter Chunhui, who is intellectually disabled; let out of prison, she goes back to the derelict brickworks and struggles to stay alive there. An all-seeing narrator who bends time and space blends folk legend, tall tales, wuxia, B-movie scraps and fairy-tale fantasy, and the author describes the entire book as a story of vengeance.

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About the book

Form
Novel
Length
455 pages in the original
Set in
South Korea
First published
2004 by Munhakdongne
Author's age
40 when first published
ISBN

9788982819278 (original)

9781787704336 (Europa Editions, United Kingdom)

9781953861146 (Archipelago Books, United States)

9781787704947 (Europa Editions, United Kingdom)