WINNER OF THE MAN ASIAN LITERARY PRIZE When sixty-nine-year-old So-nyo is separated from her husband among the crowds of the Seoul subway station, her family begins a desperate search to find her. Yet as long-held secrets and private sorrows begin to reveal themselves, they are forced to wonder: how well did they actually know the woman they called Mom? Told through the piercing voices and urgent perspectives of a daughter, son, husband, and mother, Please Look After Mom is at once an authentic picture of contemporary life in Korea and a universal story of family love.

WINNER OF THE MAN ASIAN LITERARY PRIZE 'An authentic, moving story that brings to vivid life the deep family connections that lie at the core of Korean culture' Gary Shteyngart 'Kyung-Sook Shin's tale... has hit a nerve' Guardian 'A raw tribute to the mysteries of motherhood' New York Times 'The most moving and accomplished, and often startling, novel' Wall Street Journal When sixty-nine-year-old So-nyo is separated from her husband among the crowds of the Seoul subway station, her family begins a desperate search to find her. Yet as long-held secrets and private sorrows begin to reveal themselves, they are forced to wonder: how well did they actually know the woman they called Mother? Told through the piercing voices and urgent perspectives of a daughter, son, husband, and mother, PLEASE LOOK AFTER MOTHER is at once an authentic picture of contemporary life in Korea and a universal story of family love. With an introduction by Banana Yoshimoto A W&N Essential

Novel based on relation and struggle of life after mother.

Novel based on relation and struggle of life after mother.

Follows the efforts of a family to find the mother who went missing from Seoul Station and their sobering realizations when they recall memories that suggest she may not have been happy.

South Korea, 1970. 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. 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. 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.

Sepasang suami-istri berangkat ke kota untuk mengunjungi anak-anak mereka yang telah dewasa. Sang suami bergegas naik ke gerbong kereta bawah tanah dan mengira istrinya mengikuti di belakangnya. Setelah melewati beberapa stasiun, barulah dia menyadari bahwa istrinya tak ada. Istrinya tertinggal di Stasiun Seoul. Perempuan yang hilang itu tak kunjung ditemukan, dan keluarga yang kehilangan ibu/istri/ipar itu mesti mengatasi trauma akibat kejadian tersebut. Satu per satu mereka teringat hal-hal di masa lampau yang kini membuat mereka tersadar betapa pentingnya peran sang ibu bagi mereka; dan betapa sedikitnya mereka mengenal sosok sang ibu selama iniÑperasaan-perasaannya, harapan-harapannya, dan mimpi-mimpinya.