Whale: SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE 2023

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The second that Whale was announced on the longlist for International Booker Prize, it went on my TBR. And when I learned it was still on NetGalley at that point!!! I hopped over there and snagged the PDF. I was not disappointed. Whale is a beautiful story, winding in scope, cleverly told and translated, and absolutely enchanting. I work at home. There’s nothing special about my work space; it’s just a typical Korean apartment. I just happen to write at the kitchen table instead of the study because I can easily make myself coffee. From that day on, the terror of death ruled the girl. Her goal in life became fleeing death. Her mother’s death was the main reason why she left her small mountain village, why she left the harbor city and roamed the country, and why she built an enormous theater that resembled a whale. She wasn’t obsessed with the whale just because of its size. When she saw the blue whale from the beach, she had glimpsed what eternal life looked like, life that had triumphed against death. That was the moment the fearful small-town girl became enraptured by enormous things. She would try to use big things to beat out small things, overcome shabbiness through shiny things, and forget her suffocating hometown by jumping into the vast ocean. And finally, she became a man to hurdle over the limitations of being a woman. Whale will make a lot more sense if you’re familiar with modern (South) Korean history. It will be a startlingly thought-provoking read as Cheon explores this history with incredible depth through his themes and characters as allegories of the brutality and violence that South Koreans have faced throughout the twentieth century. I can see why Cheon deliberately chose women as his protagonists, though I fully recognize the discomforts that come with a male writer putting female characters in horrific situations. It’s complicated, to say the least, and I’m still trying to process how I feel about all of this. Occasionally, there comes a novel that shakes you out of your reality, places you in its reality, and makes you want to live there forever, no matter how trying the circumstances, how matter how brutal the lay of the land, and no matter how beastly some characters who inhabit that world. Whale was one such novel for me this year, and maybe for a long time to come.

Whale: SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE Whale: SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE

Guadalupe Nettel’s Still Born is translated from Spanish by Rosalind Harvey, and is about two women grappling with whether or not to have children. I really liked Geumbok, one of the female protagonists, who had a real entrepreneurial gift. Until, that is, she fell in love with a lovely woman, transitioned to a man, and then transitioned to a drunken load. Geumbok was one shitty mother, too, worse than anything Joy Williams has so far thought up. Chi-Young is a skilled translator who’s had a long career, so I was very happy that she was translating my novel. I trusted her completely and didn’t feel the need to share any particular thoughts. I don’t personally know her work since I don’t speak English, but my agent and others have all told me that it’s excellent—I’m thrilled and grateful. By its very nature, a story contains adjustments and embellishments depending on the perspective of the person telling it, depending on the listener’s convenience, depending on the storyteller’s skills. Reader, you will believe what you want to believe. Cheon Myeong-kwan has confessed that once he wrote the first chapter of ‘Whale’, the rest of the story appeared to him like listening to a voice being dictated in his ear

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Cheon’s epic saga centres on a mother, Geumbok, and her daughter, Chunhui, and how their experiences map onto developments in South Korean society. Why do you think Cheon chooses to put his character’s lives in conversation with South Korean history? What were the specific moments in time he chose to focus on?

Whale | Cheon Myeong-Kwan | 9781953861146 | NetGalley Whale | Cheon Myeong-Kwan | 9781953861146 | NetGalley

Ukrainian writer Andrey Kurkov, who writes fiction in Russian, is shortlisted for Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv, out at the end of April, translated by Reuben Woolley. Meanwhile Perumal Murugan, who declared himself “dead” as a writer after protests against his work, is longlisted for Pyre, translated from Tamil by Aniruddhan Vasudevan. How long did it take to write the book, and what does your writing process look like? Do you type or write in longhand? Are there multiple drafts or sudden bursts of activity? Is the plot and structure intricately mapped out in advance? The list is completed by Ninth Building by Zou Jingzhi, translated by Jeremy Tiang from Chinese. It is a collection of vignettes drawn from the author’s experience growing up during the Cultural Revolution. John Updike’s Rabbit, Run. Before this, the books I read when I was young followed remarkable lives. Stories about adventure and romance, hardship and adversity, struggle and triumph. What I realised when I read this novel at 18 was that, for the most part, not much happens in life. And while that truth was very disappointing, it was also oddly a relief. The author in an interview described the stories as a revenge play ("이 모든 이야기가 한 편의 복수극") and it is, like the stories of man with the scar—the renowned con artist, notorious smuggler, superb butcher, rake, pimp of all the prostitutes on the wharf, and hot-tempered broker [he is introduced that way more than once] at times frightening and cruel. But it is also a story rich in bawdy anecdotes and exaggerated, even fantastical, characters - such as Chunhui herself, a supernaturally large baby and monstrously strong woman, unable to speak or even understand language, except when communicating telepathically with an elephant, even after the animal passed away. As the narrator warns us:

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I am still reading the novel but I wanted to write a few words about it before the winner is announced Tomorrow. I think the novel has the best chances to win. I loved Boulder more but I am not sure it will win. This one epic, longer and “big” in every way, from the themes explored to the writing style and plot. I agree here with author Cheon Meong-Kwan: it’s better to aim high and be daring, even if it’s just your debut novel.

Cheon Myeong-kwan | The Booker Prizes Cheon Myeong-kwan | The Booker Prizes

If you do nothing, you will be auto-enrolled in our premium digital monthly subscription plan and retain complete access for 65 € per month. Author Maryse Condé and The Gospel According to the New World. Courtesy of the International Booker PrizeCharles Bukowski’s Post Office. I was already middle-aged when I read this book for the first time. I read it at a very difficult time, personally. Chinaski, the weary protagonist, is also going through a hard time. Strangely, though, I felt happy while I was reading it. Setting aside its literary significance, it was because I felt I would be able to bear it all, no matter how difficult, if I could look at the world through Bukowski’s eyes - if I could arm myself with Bukowski’s gaze to stand up against the world - and be accompanied by alcohol, too. One of the narrator's favourite refrains after an instructive passage is "That was the law of ..." and the list of Laws quoted gives a good flavour of the novel: Set largely in the remote village of Pyeongdae, the dreamlike story of Whale is punctuated by satirical references to historical events that mark the seismic social shifts that transformed South Korea into a modern state in the 20th century. Set in a remote Korean village, Whale follows three mythical characters with interlinked lives: Geumbok, who has been chasing an indescribable thrill ever since she first saw a whale crest in the ocean; her mute daughter, Chunhui, who communicates with elephants; and a one-eyed woman who controls honeybees with a whistle.