Mater 2-10

Hwang Sok-yong (trans. Sora Kim-Russell, Youngjae Josephine Bae)

‘Undoubtedly the most powerful voice in Asia today.’

Nobel Prize–winner Kenzaburo Oe

‘Bittersweet and darkly comic … richly rewarding read … This is a novel that shines a light on what it means to be an industrial worker in Korea and to wrestle with the issues of worker exploitation, international tension, and a still-divided nation.’

Driftless Area Review

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‘[A]n absorbing look at an intriguing period of Korean history.’

Tony's Reading List

‘Epic.’

Pile by the Bed

Praise for Familiar Things:

‘A powerful examination of capitalism from one of South Korea’s most acclaimed authors … [Hwang] challenges us to look back and reevaluate the cost of modernisation, and see what and whom we have left behind.’

The Guardian

Praise for Familiar Things:

‘Hwang Sok-yong is one of South Korea’s foremost writers, a powerful voice for society’s marginalised.’

Deborah Smith, translator of The Vegetarian

Praise for At Dusk:

‘Having been imprisoned for political reasons, Hwang has a restrained, delicate touch, alive to the nuances of memory, the slipperiness of the past, and the difficult choices life forces us to make ... Subtly political, deeply humane, a story about home, loss, and the cost of a country’s advancement.’

Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Praise for Familiar Things:

‘As one of the country’s most prominent novelists, Hwang has never shied away from controversy … With Familiar Things, Hwang turns his attention to the underside of South Korea’s remarkable economic development, namely, the vast underclass it has created.’

Boston Review

Praise for Familiar Things:

‘Sora Kim-Russell’s translation moves gracefully between gritty, whiffy realism and folk-tale spookiness.’

The Economist

Praise for At Dusk:

‘It’s a regretful, bittersweet exploration of modernisation, which picks away at the country’s past and present, slowly becoming a moving reflection of what we gain and lose as individuals and a society in the name of progress … [Hwang’s] writing is laced with the hard-won wisdom of a man with plenty left to say.’

Ben East, The Observer

A Guardian Book of the Day‘A masterpiece of Korean history.’

Maya Jaggi, The Guardian

International Booker–nominated virtuoso Hwang Sok-yong is back with another powerful story — an epic, multi-generational tale that threads together a century of Korean history.

Centred on three generations of a family of rail workers and a laid-off factory worker staging a high-altitude sit-in, Mater 2-10 vividly depicts the lives of ordinary working Koreans, starting from the Japanese colonial era, continuing through Liberation, and right up to the twenty-first century. It is at once a powerful account that captures a nation’s longing for a rail line to reconnect North and South, a magical-realist novel that manages to reflect the lives of modern industrial workers, and a culmination of Hwang’s career — a masterpiece thirty years in the making. A true voice of a generation, Hwang shows again why he is unmatched when it comes to depicting the grief of a divided nation and bringing to life the cultural identity and trials and tribulations of the Korean people.

‘Undoubtedly the most powerful voice in Asia today.’

Nobel Prize–winner Kenzaburo Oe

Driftless Area Review

View all reviews

‘[A]n absorbing look at an intriguing period of Korean history.’

Tony's Reading List

‘Epic.’

Pile by the Bed

Praise for Familiar Things:

The Guardian

Praise for Familiar Things:

‘Hwang Sok-yong is one of South Korea’s foremost writers, a powerful voice for society’s marginalised.’

Deborah Smith, translator of The Vegetarian

Praise for At Dusk:

Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Praise for Familiar Things:

Boston Review

Praise for Familiar Things:

‘Sora Kim-Russell’s translation moves gracefully between gritty, whiffy realism and folk-tale spookiness.’

The Economist

Praise for At Dusk:

Ben East, The Observer

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Details

Format:Paperback

Size: 234mm × 153mm

Extent:486pp

ISBN (13):9781913348953

RRP:£16.99

Pub date:11 May 2023

High-res cover:Download Image

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AUTHOR

Hwang Sok-yong

Hwang Sok-yong was born in 1943 and is arguably Korea’s most renowned author. In 1993, he was sentenced to seven years in prison for an unauthorised trip to the North to promote exchange between artists in the two Koreas. Five years later, he was released on a special pardon by the new president. The recipient of Korea’s highest literary prizes, he has been shortlisted for the Prix Femina Etranger and was awarded the Emile Guimet Prize for Asian Literature for his book At Dusk. His novels and short stories are published in North and South Korea, Japan, China, France, Germany, and the United States. Previous novels include The Ancient Garden, The Story of Mister Han, The Guest, and The Shadow of Arms.

TRANSLATORS

Sora Kim-Russell

Sora Kim-Russell has translated numerous works of Korean fiction, including Hwang Sok-yong’s Princess Bari (Garnet Publishing, 2015), Familiar Things (Scribe, 2017), and At Dusk (Scribe, 2018), which was longlisted for the 2019 Man Booker International Prize.

Youngjae Josephine Bae

Winner of the 2019 LTI Korea Award for Aspiring Translators and the 2021 Korea Times Modern Korean Literature Translation Award, Youngjae Josephine Bae’s translations include Imaginary Athens: urban space and memory in Berlin, Tokyo, and Seoul (Routledge, 2020) and A Global History of Ginseng: imperialism, modernity, and orientalism (Routledge, 2022).

Familiar Things

Hwang Sok-yong

RRP: £8.99 Pub date: 12 Jul 2018 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

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At Dusk

Hwang Sok-yong

RRP: £12.99 Pub date: 29 Nov 2018 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

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Minor Bodies

Jonathan Bazzi

RRP: £9.99 Pub date: 9 Nov 2023 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

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Bird Life

Anna Smaill

RRP: £16.99 Pub date: 9 Nov 2023 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

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Gunflower

Laura Jean McKay

RRP: £9.99 Pub date: 12 Oct 2023 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

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Sisters in Arms

Shida Bazyar

RRP: £9.99 Pub date: 12 Oct 2023 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

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Keeping in Touch

Anjali Joseph

RRP: £8.99 Pub date: 10 Aug 2023 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

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Juja

Nino Haratischvili

RRP: £9.99 Pub date: 10 Aug 2023 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

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My Soul Twin

Nino Haratischvili

RRP: £9.99 Pub date: 10 Aug 2023 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

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Pink Slime

Fernanda Trías

RRP: £12.99 Pub date: 10 Aug 2023 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

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Birth Canal

Dias Novita Wuri

RRP: £9.99 Pub date: 13 Jul 2023 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

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The Dream Builders

Oindrila Mukherjee

RRP: £9.99 Pub date: 13 Jul 2023 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

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Watersong

Clarissa Goenawan

RRP: £9.99 Pub date: 8 Jun 2023 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

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What I’d Rather Not Think About

Jente Posthuma

RRP: £9.99 Pub date: 8 Jun 2023 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

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No Season but the Summer

Matilda Leyser

RRP: £16.99 Pub date: 13 Apr 2023 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

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A System So Magnificent It Is Blinding

Amanda Svensson

RRP: £10.99 Pub date: 9 Mar 2023 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

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Blue Hunger

Viola Di Grado

RRP: £14.99 Pub date: 9 Mar 2023 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

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Devil House

John Darnielle

RRP: £9.99 Pub date: 9 Mar 2023 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

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Bad Cree

Jessica Johns

RRP: £14.99 Pub date: 9 Feb 2023 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

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Marlo

Jay Carmichael

RRP: £8.99 Pub date: 9 Feb 2023 Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Cover view

Mater 2-10

Hwang Sok-yong (trans. Sora Kim-Russell, Youngjae Josephine Bae)

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