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SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE
by Cheon Myeong-Kwan
A sweeping, multi-generational tale blending fable, farce, and fantasy―a masterpiece of modern fiction perfect for fans of One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Whale is the English-language debut of a beloved and bestselling South Korean author, a born storyteller with a cinematic, darkly humorous, and thoroughly original perspective.
A woman sells her daughter to a passing beekeeper for two jars of honey. A baby weighing fifteen pounds is born in the depths of winter but named "Girl of Spring." A storm brings down the roof of a ramshackle restaurant to reveal a hidden fortune. These are just a few of the events that set Myeong-kwan Cheon's beautifully crafted, wild world in motion.
Whale, set in a remote village in South Korea, follows the lives of many linked characters, including Geumbok, an extremely ambitious woman 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. Brimming with surprises and wicked humor, Whale is an adventure-satire of epic proportions by one of the most original voices in international literature.
"This folklore-inspired novel follows three women across rural and coastal South Korea to tell a sweeping, Dickensian story of ambition, magic and folly." —The New York Times
"Cheon appears especially attuned to injustices which befall his female characters ... The indelible poignancy of these women's experiences owes itself to Cheon's exquisite prose, skillfully translated by Chi-Young Kim ... There's a breathtaking amount of story here, replete with surrealist undercurrents and the colors, smells, and textures of everyday Korean life." —The Massachusetts Review
"I fell deeply into Cheon Myeong-kwan's Whale, rendered into melancholic, wondrous English by Chi-Young Kim." —The Millions
This information about Whale was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Myeong-kwan Cheon is a South Korean novelist and screenwriter. Upon publication of his first story, "Frankand I" (2003), he received the prestigious Munhakdongne New Writer Award. His debut novel, The Whale, published the following year, won him the 10th Munhakdongne Novel Award. His novels have been translated into Chinese, English, French, Thai, Russian, and Vietnamese.
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