Whale

Cheon Myeong-kwan Press Reviews

“Told in an omniscient and playful narrative voice, smoothly translated by Chi-Young Kim, this is a distinctly Korean take on Great Expectations, a tale of aspiration and folly punctuated with artisanal bricks and dried fish . . . an affecting theme emerges about the sins of mothers, while philosophical notions broach the comic . . . and the profound . . . The novel succeeds thanks to its multi-sensual atmosphere of strangeness and a conflicted protagonist who simply refuses to accept the mundane.”

–Christian House, Financial Times

“A novel that seduces.”

–JoongAng Ilbo

“A peerless work devoted to telling a powerful story and lauded for expanding Korean literature into new dimensions.”

–The Hankyoreh

“[Whale] redefines what fiction can be.”

–The Kyunghyang Sinmun

“Whale overflows with freshness. That’s what makes it special.”

—OhmyNews