Lit in Translation

Greek Lessons

희랍어 시간 · Huirabeo sigan

Han Kang (한강, born 1970)

Translated by Deborah Smith, e. yaewon

English editions

In English

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A man who teaches ancient Greek and a woman in his class are the two centres of this novel. Taken to Germany by his parents as a teenager, he spent seventeen years there and found shelter in the intricate grammar of a long-dead language; back in Korea, he is going blind from the inherited condition that took his father's sight. She, for her part, stopped speaking for no apparent reason, months after her mother died and after losing a long legal fight for her young son following her divorce. When he falls on a staircase and smashes his glasses, she looks after him, spelling out words on his hand.

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About the book

Form
Novel
Set in
South Korea, Germany
First published
2011 by Munhakdongne
Author's age
41 when first published
ISBN

9788954616515 (original)

9780593595275 (Hogarth, United States)

9780241600276 (Hamish Hamilton, United Kingdom)

9780593595442 (Hogarth, United States)

9780241997062 (Penguin Books, United Kingdom)

More
Wikidata