The Owl Cries
A Novel
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- $26.99
Publisher Description
From the Shirley Jackson Award–winning author of The Hole, a slow-burning thriller with a touch of horror and the uncanny
A disappearance. A missing brother. A lawyer asking questions. And a vast forest in the mountains—the western woods—where the trees huddle close together emanating a crushing darkness and a chill dampness fills the air. The ranger, In-su Park, who lives nearby with his family, is a recovering alcoholic. He claims no knowledge of the man who disappeared, even though the missing man had worked as the ranger just before him. In the little village down the mountain, the shopkeepers will do the same and deny they ever saw or knew the man, though they’re less convincing; and his former supervisor at the Forestry Research Center, Professor Jin, dismisses his importance. But when an accident and a death derail the investigation and someone attempts to break into his office, In-su Park finds himself conducting his own inquiry into the goings-on deep in the heart of the western woods—spurred by the mysterious words he discovers on a piece of paper beneath his desk: “In the forest the owl cries.”
The Owl Cries is a treat for fans of Stephen King, David Lynch, and the nightmare dystopias of Franz Kafka.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A vast, unnamed forest somewhere in Korea looms over this slow-burning thriller from Shirley Jackson Award winner Hye-Young (The Hole). In-su Park, an alcoholic forest ranger whose job mostly consists of turning away after-hours visitors, is approached by Ha-in Lee, a lawyer seeking information on his estranged brother, who supposedly held Park's job several months earlier. Park, however, has never heard of Lee's brother, nor have shopkeepers in the nearby village, or Professor Zin, the former director of a recently shuttered local forest research center. When Lee is hit by a truck and killed, his death is dismissed as a standard road accident, but Park—already put off by a recent uptick in strange sounds emanating from the forest at night—suspects foul play, and begins to investigate. As the narrative progresses, Hye-Young shifts the focus away from its more straightforward genre elements to probe the inner worlds of her characters, particularly the fraying mind of Park. Readers willing to follow the novel's esoteric digressions will be rewarded with well-developed characters and a vivid sense of place, but those hoping for a more conventional mystery are likely to be disappointed. Adventurous mystery fans should check this out.
