Saha: A Novel
In a country called Town, a doctor named Su is found dead in an abandoned car. There is only one place the police intend to look for her suspected killer: the Saha Estates.
Controlled by a secretive organization of ministers, Town is the safest, richest nation in the world. But it is a society clearly divided into the haves and have-nots, and those who have the very least--who aren't even considered citizens--live on the Saha Estates. Residents of Saha must squat in moldy units without plumbing or electricity and can only find work doing harsh labor. For many, the apartment complex is a bleak haven for escaping even bleaker pasts--as it was for Jin-kyung and her brother, Do-Kyung, who showed up one day sopping wet and shivering.
No one is shocked when a lowlife like Do-Kyung becomes the main suspect in Su's--a citizen's--murder. But then Do-Kyung disappears. Isolated in a barren Saha unit, Jin-Kyung makes a choice: she will finally confront a system hellbent on erasing her brother's existence. To find him, she must rely on her tightlipped neighbors, from the mysterious janitor known as "Old Man," to Granny Konnim, the community gardener and reluctant midwife, to Woomi, an unwitting test subject at the local clinic. On her quest for the truth, Jin-kyung will uncover a reality far darker than she could have imagined.
Written in Cho Nam-Joo's signature sharp prose, brilliantly translated by Jamie Chang, Saha is a chilling portrait of what happens when we finally unmask our oppressors.
Controlled by a secretive organization of ministers, Town is the safest, richest nation in the world. But it is a society clearly divided into the haves and have-nots, and those who have the very least--who aren't even considered citizens--live on the Saha Estates. Residents of Saha must squat in moldy units without plumbing or electricity and can only find work doing harsh labor. For many, the apartment complex is a bleak haven for escaping even bleaker pasts--as it was for Jin-kyung and her brother, Do-Kyung, who showed up one day sopping wet and shivering.
No one is shocked when a lowlife like Do-Kyung becomes the main suspect in Su's--a citizen's--murder. But then Do-Kyung disappears. Isolated in a barren Saha unit, Jin-Kyung makes a choice: she will finally confront a system hellbent on erasing her brother's existence. To find him, she must rely on her tightlipped neighbors, from the mysterious janitor known as "Old Man," to Granny Konnim, the community gardener and reluctant midwife, to Woomi, an unwitting test subject at the local clinic. On her quest for the truth, Jin-kyung will uncover a reality far darker than she could have imagined.
Written in Cho Nam-Joo's signature sharp prose, brilliantly translated by Jamie Chang, Saha is a chilling portrait of what happens when we finally unmask our oppressors.
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Community Reviews
This book had moments in which I sympathised with the characters, and overall I enjoyed it but the main narrative was paused and continued in thin fragments; it wasn't really built on. I struggled to identify a protagonist, as they were left behind for a large gap of the narrative and only really focused on at the beginning and end of the book. Between this, other characters were introduced via their own respective chapters and their plight was detailed, usually ending in society defeating them. But the pattern became predictable and the ending resolution felt kind of flat to me.
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