The Guest

During the Korean War, Hwanghae Province in North Korea was the setting of a gruesome fifty-two day massacre. In an act of collective amnesia the atrocities were attributed to American military, but in truth they resulted from malicious battling between Christian & Communist Koreans.

Forty years later, Ryu Yosop, a minister living in America returns to his home village, where his older brother once played a notorious role in the bloodshed. Besieged by vivid memories & visited by the troubled spirits of the deceased, Yosop must face the survivors of the tragedy & lay his brother's soul to rest.
Faulkner-like in its intense interweaving narratives, The Guest is a daring & ambitious novel from a major figure in world literature.

Hwang Sok-yong was born in 1943 & is arguably Korea’s most renowned author. In 1993, he was sentenced to seven years in prison for an unauthorised trip to the North to promote exchange between artists in North & South Korea. Five years later, he was released on a special pardon by the new president. The recipient of Korea’s highest literary prizes & shortlisted for the Prix Femina Etranger, his novels & shorts stories are published in North & South Korea, Japan, China, France, Germany, & the United States. Previous novels include The Ancient Garden, The Story of Mister Han, The Guest, & The Shadow of Arms.