Light of Healing
 |
Description
Book Introduction
- A word from MD
-
The intense suspense of Kang Hwa-gil's returnAfter four years, artist Kang Hwa-gil returns to the subject of the female body.
The body is the most intimate and personal space, but ironically, it is also the first space exposed to the gaze of others.
The protagonist returns to his hometown and confronts his past in order to relieve the pain of unknown cause that he has suffered from for a long time.
Will she ever be freed from her suffering?
June 24, 2025. Novel/Poetry PD Kim Yu-ri
No matter how much you struggle and writh
My body, my pain, my past, which I cannot escape
Young Writer Award winner Kang Hwa-gil's new novel, his first in four years.
“Kang Hwa-gil’s novel is like an invitation sent from within one’s bloodline.
(……) We wandered around mindlessly following our bloodlines
“You will touch the heart of the novel” - Im Sol-a (novelist and poet)
A new full-length novel by Kang Hwa-gil, a novelist who has risen to the pinnacle of "Korean women's gothic novels" by winning prestigious literary awards such as the Hankyoreh Literary Award, the Young Writer's Award, and the Baek Shin-ae Literary Award, has been published by Eunhaengnamu Publishing.
"The Light of Healing" is a work that pushes forward relentlessly toward its conclusion, unfolding the dense emotions that the author has been exploring—family, school, small local town, religious groups—and the longing and love and hate, jealousy and possessiveness that arise between women in a place called "Anjin."
The story begins with a terrible past from which there is no escape.
Jisoo recalls the moment when she, who had been small and skinny and had lived without a presence, suddenly began to attract people's attention.
Autumn of my fifteenth year.
Jisoo is starkly confronted by the sight of others as her body grows rapidly larger and her appetite grows uncontrollably.
The gaze of others poured on a child soon becomes a prison in which he confines himself.
Jisoo shrinks more and more, but ironically, thanks to her enlarged body, she is called by her name for the first time by 'Harrya', whom she has admired for a long time.
But a sudden swimming pool accident leaves Jisoo desperately trying to shed not only her hometown of Anjin, but also her own body—a mass that carries terrible pain.
In that sense, the physical space contained in “The Light of Healing” is reassembled into the woman’s “body” itself.
In Gothic novels, 'space' functions as a device to confine and confine characters.
The space in the novel, from which one cannot escape no matter how much one struggles and wriths, tightly binds the ankles of the characters who wish to live in the present.
The reason I mentioned earlier that Kang Hwa-gil has reached the pinnacle of 'Korean-style women's Gothic novels' is because the main characters in his novels are trapped in a kind of 'social prison'.
That prison can become a family bound by natural ties, a hometown of birth, or a religion embraced as a mother's faith.
Things I couldn't choose of my own free will.
When I came out into the world, I saw that it was already mine.
In this sense, the reason why the memories of the characters in “The Light of Healing” are tied to their teenage years also becomes meaningful.
The author is a child who must be under the protection of parents and society.
Children who cannot judge whether that protection is love or restraint, but must remain within it for now.
So, we delve deep into the story of children who were the first to recognize, first to explore, and first to admire each other's weak points.
While reading this work, readers will experience overwhelming suspense, trapped in “the most tragic prison” (literary critic Jeon Cheong-rim) from which they cannot escape or escape.
Because we too have been carrying that prison all along.
Because I will have to carry it around all the time.
“Why do people love as much as they admire, and why do they envy and hate as much as they love?
So you want to have it, and if you can't have it, you want to destroy it.
“Will you feel pity for them and then hate them, and feel sorry for them and then want to break them?” (pp. 70-71)
My body, my pain, my past, which I cannot escape
Young Writer Award winner Kang Hwa-gil's new novel, his first in four years.
“Kang Hwa-gil’s novel is like an invitation sent from within one’s bloodline.
(……) We wandered around mindlessly following our bloodlines
“You will touch the heart of the novel” - Im Sol-a (novelist and poet)
A new full-length novel by Kang Hwa-gil, a novelist who has risen to the pinnacle of "Korean women's gothic novels" by winning prestigious literary awards such as the Hankyoreh Literary Award, the Young Writer's Award, and the Baek Shin-ae Literary Award, has been published by Eunhaengnamu Publishing.
"The Light of Healing" is a work that pushes forward relentlessly toward its conclusion, unfolding the dense emotions that the author has been exploring—family, school, small local town, religious groups—and the longing and love and hate, jealousy and possessiveness that arise between women in a place called "Anjin."
The story begins with a terrible past from which there is no escape.
Jisoo recalls the moment when she, who had been small and skinny and had lived without a presence, suddenly began to attract people's attention.
Autumn of my fifteenth year.
Jisoo is starkly confronted by the sight of others as her body grows rapidly larger and her appetite grows uncontrollably.
The gaze of others poured on a child soon becomes a prison in which he confines himself.
Jisoo shrinks more and more, but ironically, thanks to her enlarged body, she is called by her name for the first time by 'Harrya', whom she has admired for a long time.
But a sudden swimming pool accident leaves Jisoo desperately trying to shed not only her hometown of Anjin, but also her own body—a mass that carries terrible pain.
In that sense, the physical space contained in “The Light of Healing” is reassembled into the woman’s “body” itself.
In Gothic novels, 'space' functions as a device to confine and confine characters.
The space in the novel, from which one cannot escape no matter how much one struggles and wriths, tightly binds the ankles of the characters who wish to live in the present.
The reason I mentioned earlier that Kang Hwa-gil has reached the pinnacle of 'Korean-style women's Gothic novels' is because the main characters in his novels are trapped in a kind of 'social prison'.
That prison can become a family bound by natural ties, a hometown of birth, or a religion embraced as a mother's faith.
Things I couldn't choose of my own free will.
When I came out into the world, I saw that it was already mine.
In this sense, the reason why the memories of the characters in “The Light of Healing” are tied to their teenage years also becomes meaningful.
The author is a child who must be under the protection of parents and society.
Children who cannot judge whether that protection is love or restraint, but must remain within it for now.
So, we delve deep into the story of children who were the first to recognize, first to explore, and first to admire each other's weak points.
While reading this work, readers will experience overwhelming suspense, trapped in “the most tragic prison” (literary critic Jeon Cheong-rim) from which they cannot escape or escape.
Because we too have been carrying that prison all along.
Because I will have to carry it around all the time.
“Why do people love as much as they admire, and why do they envy and hate as much as they love?
So you want to have it, and if you can't have it, you want to destroy it.
“Will you feel pity for them and then hate them, and feel sorry for them and then want to break them?” (pp. 70-71)
- You can preview some of the book's contents.
Preview
index
Prologue 11
Part 1, Chapter 23
Part 2 113
Part 3 143
Epilogue 370
Author's Note 380
Part 1, Chapter 23
Part 2 113
Part 3 143
Epilogue 370
Author's Note 380
Detailed image
Into the book
“I don’t understand the hearts of those women.
What kind of feeling? That is, a sense of deprivation.
Feeling of emptiness.
Pressure.
compulsion.
The struggle to somehow shed the shell.
struggle.
"Evil"
--- p.41
“But looking back, I think he didn’t notice anything else.
That I am also a person who cannot forget love.
“That he is a person who can never let go of that memory and cannot escape from it.”
--- pp.88-89
“But that is also my wish.
No, this is faith.
A healthy and beautiful girl.
You who run the fastest and come back to everyone.
My Harriet.”
--- pp.97-98
““All of this is because you treated yourself carelessly.
“You ruined yourself.”
“You have sinned against your own body.”
--- p.194
“You must think it was hidden well.
I believe you did your best to exercise self-restraint.
But Shin-ah, you always get caught by me.
“A more eager and jealous heart.”
--- p.198
“I think maybe I wanted to leave.
Just like us.
Isn't that right? We want to leave our bodies.
“Old pain and wounds, persistent suffering, dull loneliness.”
--- p.225
“An Ji-yeon smelled like me.
“The smell of someone who is so anxious that no matter what they want, they will never achieve it and will just wander around in circles.”
What kind of feeling? That is, a sense of deprivation.
Feeling of emptiness.
Pressure.
compulsion.
The struggle to somehow shed the shell.
struggle.
"Evil"
--- p.41
“But looking back, I think he didn’t notice anything else.
That I am also a person who cannot forget love.
“That he is a person who can never let go of that memory and cannot escape from it.”
--- pp.88-89
“But that is also my wish.
No, this is faith.
A healthy and beautiful girl.
You who run the fastest and come back to everyone.
My Harriet.”
--- pp.97-98
““All of this is because you treated yourself carelessly.
“You ruined yourself.”
“You have sinned against your own body.”
--- p.194
“You must think it was hidden well.
I believe you did your best to exercise self-restraint.
But Shin-ah, you always get caught by me.
“A more eager and jealous heart.”
--- p.198
“I think maybe I wanted to leave.
Just like us.
Isn't that right? We want to leave our bodies.
“Old pain and wounds, persistent suffering, dull loneliness.”
--- p.225
“An Ji-yeon smelled like me.
“The smell of someone who is so anxious that no matter what they want, they will never achieve it and will just wander around in circles.”
--- p.227
Publisher's Review
“You know.
“Why didn’t you die then?”
That fall, a terrible accident occurred surrounding your friends.
A chilling suspense filled with longing, jealousy, and love and hate.
Jisoo works in a way that pushes her.
“Goals for your career.
A sense of accomplishment and pleasure.
I am addicted to the “intense stimulation” that comes after a suffocatingly tight schedule.
The thrill of testing your limits and gaining complete control over your surroundings.
Jisoo's lover, Taein, speaks to Jisoo.
“Work is always everything to you.
“Is there anything meaningful besides work?” But Jisoo doesn’t care.
This is because Taein doesn't know that Jisoo has something meaningful to do besides work.
Jisoo, who is 176 centimeters tall and weighs 50 kilograms, suffers from severe anorexia and bulimia.
In some cases, appetite suppressants are even taken.
Taein was unaware of that fact.
I shouldn't have known.
“A few spoonfuls of rice and a little side dish.
Or a slice of bread.
One egg.
Carrots or cucumbers.
Cherry tomatoes.
I never knew that was my stock.
Because when I was with him, I ate like normal people.
Because I ate a whole bowl of rice without any fuss.
I did it because I didn't want to look like a woman who was concerned about her weight.
No, I did it because I wanted to look like someone who originally had a thin body.” (p. 40)
As a major project approaches, Jisoo's health begins to deteriorate rapidly.
He says that it's because he overdid it, that he's just tired, and that he'll be fine if he rests a bit, and goes down to his hometown, Anjin, for vacation.
Jisoo's mother prepares a meal for her daughter who has come down to her hometown for the first time in a long time.
Jisoo thinks about her mother, who is worried that she is too thin.
I remember how embarrassed my mother was when I was fifteen and obese, and how my relatives would whisper in front of me.
Meanwhile, Jisoo's mother tells her that the wife of the young man who provides vegetables for the cooking seminar 'Chaesuhoe' she is attending is Jisoo's classmate.
Shin-ah.
Jisoo recalls her school days, which she had forgotten, as she hears the name for the first time in a long time.
The children who hung around Harry, whom he admired, and Shin-ah and Ji-yeon.
“It was so obvious.
Maybe it's because everything is as expected.
So much time has passed.
You and I, how can we be so similar?
No.
No, I'm not.
I have changed.
You don't know, but I do.
I'm telling you that I've changed.
Shin-ah.
huh?
But there were some things that didn't change at all.
“Isina has never been my interest.” (p. 60)
Harry.
At that time, Jisoo's only interest was Harry.
Not only Jisoo, but all the kids were like that.
Even school teachers.
Beautiful Haria, with her tall stature and slender, long legs, ran across the field.
Harry, who was good at studying and even affectionate, was a friend of all of us.
Shin-ah was actually a stumbling block for Ji-soo.
Shin-ah, who was always by Harry's side and never left, was always wary of Ji-soo.
A believer of Jo Chil-hyeon Church, which turned Yeongjik-dong into a den of cults.
In fact, Shin Ah-man was not a believer of Jo Chil-hyeon Church.
It was the same with Harry.
But Harry never revealed to anyone outside that he was a member of the Jo Chil-Hyeon Church.
So, Harry was always at the center of rumors.
That kid who studies well.
The guy who lives in building 107.
Jisoo searches through her mother's cell phone and finds traces of Shin-ah.
Then and now, Jisoo's interest is not Shin-ah.
Only Harry.
My Harry.
The next morning, the names of Shin-ah and Hari-ria came to the surface of my memory.
Hell begins.
“Most people are always asleep at this time.
(……) things that tire the mind.
Memories.
Words that stab the heart.
Far away from such things, I am wrapped in the warm and cozy blanket of the unconscious.
I'm jealous.
People who can rest like that.
“People who sleep comfortably and wake up refreshed to start their day.” (p. 56)
“It became more persistent and more desperate.
It's more explicit and more terrifying.
Kang Hwa-gil's plan finally became a success."
A path that has been set in a certain direction does not look back.
Run fast.
It doesn't stop.
《The Light of Healing》 presents a completely new space called the 'body' and builds up a heavy narrative of characters trapped in a single mass - the body.
It overlaps and peels back the layers of oppression surrounding women, such as family, the gaze of others, school, city, village, and religion.
Feelings that are suppressed and cannot be expressed.
A body covered in pain.
From the moment we are born, everything we experience is organically connected and tightly bound together.
The character who must live with all those lumps that cannot be defined in a single word is soon to be the reader's mirror.
Furthermore, the stories 'Hilaria and Antiope' and 'The Women in the Tiger's Belly', which appear like fables in the novel, become huge allegories about the space of the body dealt with in 'The Light of Healing'.
The moment the last chapter of the work is closed, “The Light of Healing” will be completed as a single body and space.
On the genre called ‘Gangwha-gil’.
“Why didn’t you die then?”
That fall, a terrible accident occurred surrounding your friends.
A chilling suspense filled with longing, jealousy, and love and hate.
Jisoo works in a way that pushes her.
“Goals for your career.
A sense of accomplishment and pleasure.
I am addicted to the “intense stimulation” that comes after a suffocatingly tight schedule.
The thrill of testing your limits and gaining complete control over your surroundings.
Jisoo's lover, Taein, speaks to Jisoo.
“Work is always everything to you.
“Is there anything meaningful besides work?” But Jisoo doesn’t care.
This is because Taein doesn't know that Jisoo has something meaningful to do besides work.
Jisoo, who is 176 centimeters tall and weighs 50 kilograms, suffers from severe anorexia and bulimia.
In some cases, appetite suppressants are even taken.
Taein was unaware of that fact.
I shouldn't have known.
“A few spoonfuls of rice and a little side dish.
Or a slice of bread.
One egg.
Carrots or cucumbers.
Cherry tomatoes.
I never knew that was my stock.
Because when I was with him, I ate like normal people.
Because I ate a whole bowl of rice without any fuss.
I did it because I didn't want to look like a woman who was concerned about her weight.
No, I did it because I wanted to look like someone who originally had a thin body.” (p. 40)
As a major project approaches, Jisoo's health begins to deteriorate rapidly.
He says that it's because he overdid it, that he's just tired, and that he'll be fine if he rests a bit, and goes down to his hometown, Anjin, for vacation.
Jisoo's mother prepares a meal for her daughter who has come down to her hometown for the first time in a long time.
Jisoo thinks about her mother, who is worried that she is too thin.
I remember how embarrassed my mother was when I was fifteen and obese, and how my relatives would whisper in front of me.
Meanwhile, Jisoo's mother tells her that the wife of the young man who provides vegetables for the cooking seminar 'Chaesuhoe' she is attending is Jisoo's classmate.
Shin-ah.
Jisoo recalls her school days, which she had forgotten, as she hears the name for the first time in a long time.
The children who hung around Harry, whom he admired, and Shin-ah and Ji-yeon.
“It was so obvious.
Maybe it's because everything is as expected.
So much time has passed.
You and I, how can we be so similar?
No.
No, I'm not.
I have changed.
You don't know, but I do.
I'm telling you that I've changed.
Shin-ah.
huh?
But there were some things that didn't change at all.
“Isina has never been my interest.” (p. 60)
Harry.
At that time, Jisoo's only interest was Harry.
Not only Jisoo, but all the kids were like that.
Even school teachers.
Beautiful Haria, with her tall stature and slender, long legs, ran across the field.
Harry, who was good at studying and even affectionate, was a friend of all of us.
Shin-ah was actually a stumbling block for Ji-soo.
Shin-ah, who was always by Harry's side and never left, was always wary of Ji-soo.
A believer of Jo Chil-hyeon Church, which turned Yeongjik-dong into a den of cults.
In fact, Shin Ah-man was not a believer of Jo Chil-hyeon Church.
It was the same with Harry.
But Harry never revealed to anyone outside that he was a member of the Jo Chil-Hyeon Church.
So, Harry was always at the center of rumors.
That kid who studies well.
The guy who lives in building 107.
Jisoo searches through her mother's cell phone and finds traces of Shin-ah.
Then and now, Jisoo's interest is not Shin-ah.
Only Harry.
My Harry.
The next morning, the names of Shin-ah and Hari-ria came to the surface of my memory.
Hell begins.
“Most people are always asleep at this time.
(……) things that tire the mind.
Memories.
Words that stab the heart.
Far away from such things, I am wrapped in the warm and cozy blanket of the unconscious.
I'm jealous.
People who can rest like that.
“People who sleep comfortably and wake up refreshed to start their day.” (p. 56)
“It became more persistent and more desperate.
It's more explicit and more terrifying.
Kang Hwa-gil's plan finally became a success."
A path that has been set in a certain direction does not look back.
Run fast.
It doesn't stop.
《The Light of Healing》 presents a completely new space called the 'body' and builds up a heavy narrative of characters trapped in a single mass - the body.
It overlaps and peels back the layers of oppression surrounding women, such as family, the gaze of others, school, city, village, and religion.
Feelings that are suppressed and cannot be expressed.
A body covered in pain.
From the moment we are born, everything we experience is organically connected and tightly bound together.
The character who must live with all those lumps that cannot be defined in a single word is soon to be the reader's mirror.
Furthermore, the stories 'Hilaria and Antiope' and 'The Women in the Tiger's Belly', which appear like fables in the novel, become huge allegories about the space of the body dealt with in 'The Light of Healing'.
The moment the last chapter of the work is closed, “The Light of Healing” will be completed as a single body and space.
On the genre called ‘Gangwha-gil’.
GOODS SPECIFICS
- Date of issue: June 5, 2025
- Page count, weight, size: 384 pages | 476g | 135*205*30mm
- ISBN13: 9791167375629
- ISBN10: 1167375629
You may also like
카테고리
korean
korean
![ELLE 엘르 스페셜 에디션 A형 : 12월 [2025]](http://librairie.coreenne.fr/cdn/shop/files/b8e27a3de6c9538896439686c6b0e8fb.jpg?v=1766436872&width=3840)
