Hye-young Pyun Bücher

WINNER OF THE SHIRLEY JACKSON AWARD 'A Korean take on Misery' Time 'A masterwork of suspense, and a profound meditation on grief, solitude, and secrecy' Laura van den Berg, author of Find Me Oghi wakes in a hospital bed unable to speak or move. The car accident that killed his wife has left him trapped in his own body and under the control of his mother-in-law, as she grieves the loss of her only child. Isolated from his friends and neglected by his nurse, Oghi's world shrinks to the room he lies in and his memories of his wife, a sensitive woman who found solace in cultivating her garden. But as Oghi remains alone and paralysed, his mother-in-law is hard at work in the now-abandoned garden, uprooting what her daughter had worked so hard to plant and obsessively digging larger and larger holes... A bestseller in Korea, The Hole is a superbly crafted and deeply unnerving novel about the horrors of isolation and neglect in all of its banal and brutal forms. 'Like Hitchcock or Abe, Pyun peers head on into the unnerving depths of human grief' Blake Butler, author of 300,000,000 'While reading The Hole, you'll find yourself suddenly doubting everything' Kyung-sook Shin, New York Times bestselling author of Please Look After Mother

From the Shirley Jackson Award–winning author of The Hole, a slow-burning noir thriller with a touch of horror and the uncanny.

For fans of J. G. Ballard and early Ian McEwan, this tense psychological thriller by the author of The Hole is described as “an airtight masterpiece” by the Korean Economic Daily. The nameless protagonist, known for his skills as a rat killer, is sent by his extermination company on a long assignment in C, a country spiraling into chaos, paranoia, and disease. Upon arrival, he is quickly detained by quarantine officials and finds himself isolated, unable to contact the outside world. When he finally reaches an old friend, he learns that his ex-wife's body was discovered in his apartment, making him the prime suspect. As he narrowly escapes arrest, he must navigate the fearful streets of this foreign city while trying to reconnect with his company and friends to clear his name. As his past life slips away and he reflects on his relationship with his wife, it becomes evident that he may not be who he believes he is. This apocalyptic narrative explores the destructive effects of fear and paranoia on individuals, serving as a haunting tale of a man's loss of identity and humanity.

Dwie kobiety. Dwie bolesne utraty. Dwie ścieżki poszukiwania prawdy i jedna rozpacz rozpisana na dwie role. Se-o zamknęła się w domu z ojcem, by uciec od świata, który ją skrzywdził. Tymczasem jej dom płonie. Po tym już nic nie będzie takie samo. Ki-Jeong jest nauczycielką, ale nie czuje się dobrze w tym, co robi. Pewnego dnia otrzyma wiadomość, która nią wstrząśnie. Losy obu kobiet połączą się w zaskakujący sposób. Intrygująca fantazja literacka o tym, jak kształtują nas smutek i rozgoryczenie. O roli przypadku, gdy stajemy się sobie nagle bliscy w jednym i drugim. Także o tym, jak wiele dowiadujemy się o swoim życiu, krocząc ścieżkami zmarłych. Jednocześnie bezkompromisowa rozprawa z ciemną stroną koreańskiego kapitalizmu, w którym pieniądz okrutnie kształtuje ludzką tożsamość. Ta mroczna opowieść to historia ucieczek i poszukiwań, ale przede wszystkim narracja o wyobcowaniu. Powieść w każdym wymiarze nieoczywista. Jarosław Czechowicz, „Krytycznym okiem” Pyun Hye-young urodziła się w Seulu w 1972 roku. Zadebiutowała, wygrywając konkurs zorganizowany przez gazetę Shinmun na „Młodego pisarza” w 2000 roku opowiadaniem „Drżące krople rosy”. Jest laureatką wielu nagród, w tym między innymi The Shirley Jackson Award w 2017 roku za powieść Dół. Prawo linii to trzecia książka autorki po polsku.