Bodies are red and raw, the fish turn venomous, beyond the beach guns point out from the North's watchtowers. It's winter in Sokcho, a tourist town on the border between South and North Korea. 'A fascinating portrait of life in modern Korea.'A punchy first novel.' - Guardian Top 10 Best New Books in TranslationĪs if Marguerite Duras wrote Convenience Store Woman – a beautiful, unexpected novel from a debut French Korean author 'A fascinating portrait of life in modern Korea.' - S Magazine 'The bustling seaside resort of Sokcho in South Korea is the perfect backdrop for this quietly haunting debut.' - Daily Mail In its aimless, outsider protagonist there are echoes of Sayaka Murata's Convenience Store Woman.' - Irish Times 'Enigmatic, beguiling.This finely crafted debut explores topics of identity and heredity in compelling fashion. 'Beautifully translated from the French by Aneesa Abbas Higgins, comes together slowly, like a Polaroid photo, its effects both intimate and foreign.' - TLS

Elisa Shua Dusapin's voice is distinctive and unmistakable. As she's pulled into his vision and taken in by his drawings, she strikes upon a way to finally be seen.Īn exquisitely-crafted debut, which won the Prix Robert Walser, Winter in Sokcho is a novel about shared identities and divided selves, vision and blindness, intimacy and alienation. But he takes no interest in the Sokcho she knows – the gaudy neon lights, the scars of war, the fish market where her mother works. When she agrees to accompany him on trips to discover an 'authentic' Korea, they visit snowy mountaintops and dramatic waterfalls, and cross into North Korea. One evening, an unexpected guest arrives: a French cartoonist determined to find inspiration in this desolate landscape. A young French Korean woman works as a receptionist in a tired guesthouse.

'A punchy first novel.' - Guardian Top 10 Best New Books in TranslationĪs if Marguerite Duras wrote Convenience Store Woman – a beautiful, unexpected novel from a debut French Korean author

Winter in sokcho