Violets Av Kyung-Sook Shin

Translated by Anton Hur <br/> <br/>'Mesmerising, dreamlike and prescient in its sharpness and attentiveness to the dynamics between women and the male and female gaze' Sharlene Teo, author of Ponti <br/> <br/>'Darkly beautiful, VIOLETS explores the toll of abandonment and relentless marginalisation' Frances Cha, author of If I Had Your Face <br/> <br/>'Violets lavishes attention on the kind of person who often slips through the cracks, unseen or ignored. There is a beauty and a bravery in speaking for small lives' Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, author of Harmless Like You <br/> <br/>'Has a way of seeing past the smooth surface of societal appearance and into the fragile, obscure psychological space that lies just beneath' Alexandra Kleenman, author of Something New Under the Sun <br/> <br/>'An intimate portrait of isolation and unspoken desire. Darkly poetic, dreamlike and meditative' Adelle Stripe, author of Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile <br/> <br/>South Korea, 1970. <br/> <br/>San is a lonely child, ostracised from her community. She soon finds a friend in a girl called Namae, until one afternoon changes everything. Following a moment of intimacy in a minari field, Namae violently rejects San, setting her on a troubling path. <br/> <br/>We next meet San, aged twenty-two, when she happens upon a job at a flower shop in Seoul's bustling city centre. Over the course of one hazy, volatile summer, San is introduced to a curious cast of characters - the mute shop owner, a brash co-worker, kind farmers and aggressive customers - and fuelled by a quiet desperation to jump-start her life, she plunges headfirst into obsession with a passing magazine photographer. Throughout it all, San's moment with Namae continues to linger in the back of her mind. <br/> <br/>A story of thwarted desire, misogyny and erasure, Violets reveals the high stakes involved in one woman's desperate search for both autonomy and attachment in an unforgiving society. <br/>