• About this Book

Written by Hwang Sok-Yong
Translated by Kyung-Ja Chun and Maya West

• Format: Trade Paperback, 240 pages
 
• Publisher: Seven Stories Press
• On Sale: October 7, 2008
• Price: $16.95
• ISBN: 978-1-58322-751-0 (1-58322-751-2)

about this book

Based on actual events, The Guest is a profound portrait of a divided people haunted by a painful past, and a generation’s search for reconciliation.

During the Korean War, Hwanghae Province in North Korea was the setting of a gruesome fifty-two day massacre. In an act of collective amnesia the atrocities were attributed to American military, but in truth they resulted from malicious battling between Christian and Communist Koreans. Forty years later, Ryu Yosop, a minister living in America returns to his home village, where his older brother once played a notorious role in the bloodshed. Besieged by vivid memories and visited by the troubled spirits of the deceased, Yosop must face the survivors of the tragedy and lay his brother’s soul to rest.

Faulkner-like in its intense interweaving narratives, The Guest is a daring and ambitious novel from a major figure in world literature.

“Vivid snapshots from the Korean War and surreal encounters with ghosts intersect in the first major US release by award-winning Korean novelist Sok-young…an ambitious exploration of a post-war survivor’s chaotic psyche.” — Publishers Weekly