Book Bearers

Book Bearers is a story of Yena, a girl at an international school in Paris, and Mujin, a boy monk in old Korea. When she was young, Yena came to Paris with her parents and grew up there. She happened to meet Madam Luna, who was working in the National Museum of France. Madam Luna helped Yena know about old Korean culture and legacy, particularly about Jikji, old Buddhist scriptures printed in old Korea. The scriptures were made by Buddhist monks of the Heungdeok Temple in the fourteenth century to promote the peace of the old country and her people. One of them is young Mujin, an assistant in the making of the scriptures at the temple. What he noticed in the process is well depicted in the novel. He came to save the scriptures from the temple on fire and hand down the books to descendants so he can be claimed as a book bearer.