Nuisances Live in the Backyard
- 195
• Original title : 뒤뜰에 골칫거리가 산다
• Price : 12,800KRW
• Product Dimensions :
133x177, 244pages
• Publication Date : 2014-03-24
• ISBN : 9788958287247
• 도서상태 : 정상
Book Information & Summary
Written by Hwang Sun-mi
A seventy-year-old man Kang moves into a house number 100 in a hillside town, where he keeps his childhood memories and wounds. Since the house number 100, the biggest and oldest house in town, became a property of the old man Kang thirty years ago, it has been kept intact. The old man Kang is a successful man, but he is unmarried. He moves into this house after he is diagnosed with a brain tumor. The house called “The House of Giant” is connected to the backside of the village’s mountain. The people in the village, not knowing who owns the house, come and go to the mountain through the backyard of the house as they
always do; children grow chickens in the backyard, and an old lady grows plants there. Kang, as a stranger, explores his house, backyard, and storage day by day and recalls his wounds from childhood. At first, he tries to stop the nuisances naturally coming and going through his house like the air, but strangely enough, the more he tries the bigger mess he makes. Because of his backyard, he becomes closer to the children, neighbors, and childhood friends who are still living in the village. As he does so, he faces his wounds from his childhood. He realizes what he remembers is not all truth, but misunderstandings recreated in his
memories and in others’; and that is life.
This work of Hwang Sun-mi’s stands out with her unique warmness and subtlety. It explores the meaning of each life of ours, which is better known to others rather than to oneself, through secret places hiding in the old house, such as the backyard, closet, attic, and storage.. Everyone has one’s own backyard, where no one is invited. However, as we look into it a little further, a wonder lives and breathes in the backyard. Moreover, if one is ready to accept someone in one’s own backyard, that backyard could be the most important front garden for some other people.
A seventy-year-old man Kang moves into a house number 100 in a hillside town, where he keeps his childhood memories and wounds. Since the house number 100, the biggest and oldest house in town, became a property of the old man Kang thirty years ago, it has been kept intact. The old man Kang is a successful man, but he is unmarried. He moves into this house after he is diagnosed with a brain tumor. The house called “The House of Giant” is connected to the backside of the village’s mountain. The people in the village, not knowing who owns the house, come and go to the mountain through the backyard of the house as they
always do; children grow chickens in the backyard, and an old lady grows plants there. Kang, as a stranger, explores his house, backyard, and storage day by day and recalls his wounds from childhood. At first, he tries to stop the nuisances naturally coming and going through his house like the air, but strangely enough, the more he tries the bigger mess he makes. Because of his backyard, he becomes closer to the children, neighbors, and childhood friends who are still living in the village. As he does so, he faces his wounds from his childhood. He realizes what he remembers is not all truth, but misunderstandings recreated in his
memories and in others’; and that is life.
This work of Hwang Sun-mi’s stands out with her unique warmness and subtlety. It explores the meaning of each life of ours, which is better known to others rather than to oneself, through secret places hiding in the old house, such as the backyard, closet, attic, and storage.. Everyone has one’s own backyard, where no one is invited. However, as we look into it a little further, a wonder lives and breathes in the backyard. Moreover, if one is ready to accept someone in one’s own backyard, that backyard could be the most important front garden for some other people.
Editor’s Note
_ Little Brown (U.K.) _ Ambo Anthos (The Netherlands) _ Genc Timas (Turkey)