1.
reaction
2.
Ground task
3.
atheist
4.
exchange
5.
another woman
6.
Nice rug
7.
We failed
8.
Dead men speak not

Son Bo-mi's new novel is out!
Another story of mine that only I didn't know

Son Bo-mi's new full-length novel, "Small Town," has been published by Munhak-kwa-Jiseongsa.
It's been three years since his first full-length novel, "Dear Ralph Lauren."
The author has consistently demonstrated his skills as a central figure in Korean literature, winning numerous literary awards (Young Writer Award Grand Prize, Hankook Ilbo Literary Award, Kim Jun-seong Literary Award, Daesan Literary Award) with his unique sensibility that “does not say the decisive part” and “is more powerful because it is not said” (Kwon Hee-chul) and “a freshness that shakes the aesthetic landscape of Korean novels” (Lee Gwang-ho).


This novel is a collection of works serialized from November 2018 to June 2019 in Kyobo Life Insurance's [Read, Stroll, and Feel in Gwanghwamun].
It is a mystery drama that is narrated by a first-person female narrator, going back and forth between the present of 'me' and the past story of the 'small town' where I lived, and that restores the narrative of me and my mother that no one told me and that was even erased from my memory.
The author has recently shown her interest in characters portrayed as "ten-year-old girls" through short stories such as "When the Night Passes" and "Memories of Christmas." This novel is an extension of this interest, and will provide a good opportunity for readers who have been following Son Bo-mi's recent works to glimpse into the author's expanded world.

Things Unsaid
The truth of life completed with blank spaces

I, who works as a part-time lecturer on an irregular basis, have a husband who works at an entertainment agency and a mother who passed away from gallbladder cancer last year.
The story begins with the fact that my mother, before she died, endlessly recounted her life to me, which confused me.


My mother told me so many stories, and I wondered if everyone reviewed their lives like that before they died, but I couldn't figure out how to answer that question.
You can't ask someone who's lost a parent, "When your parents died, did they open up so much about their lives? Did that confuse you?"
There was nothing like that in all the countless articles my husband had saved.
After my mother passed away, I spent some time floating among the many stories she left me.
Like a person thrown into the sea with his hands and feet tied.
--- pp.12~13

The words my mother left behind shake up my entire life, and I repeatedly recall my mother and my past to escape this feeling of “floating.”
If we recall the truth that another aspect of an event is revealed not in what is said but in what is left unsaid, we need a hint about the gap that Mother did not mention.

The first hint is, of course, the words my mother left behind.
It's not just the words he left just before he died.
The countless words you said to me while I was alive will be the first clues the reader can read.
The second would be my memories of that old 'small town', the place to which this novel returns repeatedly.
There are memories that become the starting point of the incident in the neighborhood where I lived with my family until I was eleven.
Lastly, there is my husband's scrapbook.
I often look through my husband's numerous scrapbooks, and perhaps there is more information in them than what my mother and I remember.


The fun of reading Son Bo-mi's books lies in the way she constructs the events in a three-dimensional manner by layering the stories of various characters, while the author herself steps away from the position of judge and draws the readers into the events.
If you follow the hints the author has skillfully placed and the story that unfolds skillfully, you will find yourself drawn into Son Bo-mi's detective story.
Now, it is up to the reader to trace the thread of the story thrown into this novel and decide what hints to use as a guide to fill in the gaps left by the mother's words.


“He disappeared.”
The Disappeared and What They Say

“I started to think that the girl would meet a washed-up female singer.
I don't know why that is.
Maybe it's because I've been watching a lot of stage videos of old female divas lately.
I wondered what kind of lives those women who once sang with such beautiful voices were living now, and if they were not able to live happy lives, what was the reason?”
- From an interview titled [Reading, Strolling, and Feeling in Gwanghwamun]

Two female celebrities appear in this novel.
One is actress Yoon Iso, who works for her husband's company, and the other is a singer who used to live in hiding in a small town.
First, Yoon Iso.
Yun Iso, who was so beautiful that it was breathtaking, suddenly disappears one day, leaving behind only a letter.
And another woman, a singer who was very popular in the 1980s, whom I met by chance when I was a child in that small town.
He was living out of the public eye, but by an unexpected turn of events, my family witnessed his life.


By throwing out one incident and subtly mixing it with another incident that could be the other side of it, the author blurs the line between the real facts and the hazy memories, giving the reader something to think about.
Is the missing Yoon Iso living happily? If she can't live happily like the female singer I saw in the past, where did her unhappiness originate?


The various episodes that unfold while going back and forth between the memories of the two people who have now disappeared enrich the narrative as they unfold in response to the life I know and another story about myself that I do not yet know.
This is a section that clearly demonstrates the strength of Son Bo-mi's novels, which weave together seemingly unrelated events one by one and gradually reveal hidden stories as you read.
Reading this book will be a careful yet active process, constantly questioning which choice to make at the many crossroads Son Bo-mi has created, and stepping forward while constantly questioning whether one path might be better than another.