Whale
SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE 2023
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4.3 • 3 Ratings
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- £6.99
Publisher Description
"A DISTINCTLY KOREAN TAKE ON GREAT EXPECTATIONS." Financial Times
A woman sells her daughter to a passing beekeeper for two jars of honey. A baby weighing fifteen pounds is born in the depths of winter but named "Girl of Spring". A storm brings down the roof of a ramshackle restaurant to reveal a hidden fortune. These are just some of the events that set Myeong-Kwan's beautifully crafted, wild world in motion.
Set in a remote village in South Korea, Whale follows the lives of its linked characters: Geumbok, who has been chasing an indescribable thrill ever since she first saw a whale crest in the ocean; her mute daughter, Chunhui, who communicates with elephants; and a one-eyed woman who controls honeybees with a whistle.
Brimming with surprises and wicked humour, Whale is an adventure-satire of epic proportions, by one of international literature's the most original voices.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Cheon (Modern Family) draws on Korean myths for a disturbing tale about three women in mid-20th-century South Korea. Chunhui was born in a stable and is the only child of Geumbok, who ignores and neglects her. (In Chunhui's isolation, she befriends a retired circus elephant.) As a teen, she is falsely accused of arson, imprisoned, and tortured, and isn't released until she's 27. Cheon then backtracks to the story of a woman known as "the old crone," who maimed her daughter then sold her for two jars of honey. The crone lives only for money and revenge, hiding a fortune in her hut which Geumbok finds years later during a storm. Throughout the meandering story, the image of a whale repeats: first as a harbinger of change for young Geumbok, and later as inspiration for Geumbok to build a movie theater. Geumbok's ambition as a businessperson, though, eventually results in her murder at the hands of the Yakuza. (A mythical curse from the crone also seems to have played a part in Geumbok's demise.) The unruly blend of myth and modernity doesn't always work, and the blasé tone used to depict violence and torture will turn off some readers. It's intriguing, but not for the faint of heart.
