Violets: From the bestselling author of Please Look After Mother by Kyung-Sook Shin

A neglected young woman experiences the violence and isolation of contemporary Korean society, from the two million copy bestselling author of PLEASE LOOK AFTER MOTHER.

South Korea, 1970.

San is a lonely child, ostracised from her community. She soon finds a friend in a girl called Namae, until one afternoon changes everything. Following a moment of intimacy in a minari field, Namae violently rejects San, setting her on a troubling path.

We next meet San, aged twenty-two, when she happens upon a job at a flower shop in Seoul's bustling city centre. Over the course of one hazy, volatile summer, San is introduced to a curious cast of characters - the mute shop owner, a brash co-worker, kind farmers and aggressive customers - and fuelled by a quiet desperation to jump-start her life, she plunges headfirst into obsession with a passing magazine photographer. Throughout it all, San's moment with Namae continues to linger in the back of her mind.

A story of thwarted desire, misogyny and erasure, Violets reveals the high stakes involved in one woman's desperate search for both autonomy and attachment in an unforgiving society.

Review

Violets is a novel built on the proximity of beauty and violence . . . Shin finds indirect and nuanced ways to conjure the atmosphere of a place where flourishing is thwarted at every turn . . . There's a timeless, fable-like quality to the narration that makes the story strange and gripping. -- Lara Feigel ― Guardian

Dreamy, immersive and evocative . . . What Shin does well in Violets . . . is the portrayal of the disappointments, desires, regrets and loneliness of everywoman characters on the fringes of society. San's failures - to get a respectable job, to have her own writing desk, to be acknowledged by the man she desires - are depicted with credibility and tenderness ― TLS

Product details

    Publisher ‏ : ‎ W&N (14 April 2022)
    Language ‏ : ‎ English
    Paperback ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
    ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1474623557
    ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1474623551
    Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13.4 x 1.8 x 21.4 cm

    Customer reviews: 4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 110 ratings