![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The cause of her animosity is never clarified, nor is why Shoko never fulfills her ambition to leave her hometown for a career in the city. This might be curious enough, but back home in Japan, Shoko lives with her own grandfather, whom she utterly despises. For Soyu, she paints a dark, distressing picture of familial dysfunction and psychic stress. To Grandpa, she sends pleasant, optimistic anecdotes. But the accounts she gives of her life to each of them are diametrically opposed. During her visit, Shoko develops a surprisingly warm connection with Soyu’s grandfather, who speaks to Shoko in Japanese, which, it’s implied, he learned during Japan’s occupation of Korea.Īfter she returns home, Shoko stays in touch with both Soyu and Grandpa via letters. For example, in the title story (the publication of which, in 2013, launched the author’s career in her native South Korea), the narrator, Soyu, looks back over her relationship with a Japanese exchange student, Shoko, who stayed in her home for a short time during high school. ![]()
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