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Snow, blackout

A novel about the Korean psyche
by
September 2025, no. 479

We Do Not Part by Han Kang

Hamish Hamilton, $39.99 hb, 384 pp

Buy this book

ABR receives a commission on items purchased through this link. All ABR reviews are fully independent.

Snow, blackout

A novel about the Korean psyche
by
September 2025, no. 479

We Do Not Part, the most recent novel by Nobel laureate Han Kang, is an intriguing synthesis of topics, themes, and structures which have threaded through her writing since the publication of The Vegetarian (2007). As in her earlier work, We Do Not Part blends lyricism and violence to depict the psychological suffering of a female protagonist who strives to comprehend the trauma buried deep in the psyche of Korean society. Kyungha, the primary narrator, is the author of books with a socio-historical foundation and has been afflicted with mental distress – nightmares, migraines, and insomnia – since completing a book about a massacre of Korean civilians by the military government. Readers will identify similarities between Kyungha and Han Kang herself, and with her book Human Acts (2014), the highly acclaimed novel about the 1980 massacre in Gwangju.

We Do Not Part

We Do Not Part

by Han Kang

Hamish Hamilton, $39.99 hb, 384 pp

Buy this book

ABR receives a commission on items purchased through this link. All ABR reviews are fully independent.

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