Twelve years after his debut, Baek Ga-heum, who has built his own solid novel world with his unique and solid writing style and structure, has released his first full-length novel, "Naphthalene."
This work, which was selected as a serial for EBS's 'Radio Serial Novel' last summer before its publication and was read in its entirety, received a warm response from listeners, raising expectations for its publication.
This work is a grand epic of a scale that could have been compiled into several long stories, but it may be a shame to bundle it all together in one, with its narrative expansion, diverse forms of life, and the ongoing story that embraces the premise of human life and death, unlike any other previously published works.


This work, set in the Sky Training Center in the mountains, tells the universal story of death and extinction of humanity through the events created by various characters as time and space intersect, and their individual stories and wounds, and can be said to be my story about the staggering masses of humans, and the story of all of us living in the modern era.

“Right now, ……what are you doing?”
“Why am I so angry that you haven’t changed?”
No, it's bittersweet to think that you've only grown older than you were when you were young.
… … You can’t even look me in the eye.
You were, well, since you were young… … .”
"What do you know about me? Why would you suddenly come to me after decades and act so rudely?"
“I told you, simply, I’m trying to show you where the heart and emotions used to be, that feeling of presence you realize when something is gone, that philosophy we were once fascinated by when we were younger.
What I mean is that what I knew back then is not what I knew then.
I didn't know that such things would become clear at such a late age.
The reason I came to see you is simple: I came to confirm whether you really existed.” --- pp.36-37

He didn't care how time passed or how much had passed.
There was no one looking for him, and no one he wanted to see.
Sometimes he desperately wanted to miss someone, because he was so lonely.
that
I often woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't fall back to sleep, so I woke up wide-eyed in the morning.
He thought that was what it felt like to be lonely.
I wanted to stare blankly at the ceiling and miss someone.
Someone thought he wished he had missed him.
I decided that it was longing.
I thought about each person who came to mind one by one.
They were people who were far from longing.
These were people I had never even thought of before.
He was forcing himself inside.
Still, I felt a little better when I thought about them briefly.
I thought that what I was thinking right now was that I was desperately missing someone.
But soon, he realized why he was doing this and became depressed again.

One day, while he was in the midst of a gloomy and depressing day, the doorbell suddenly rang and someone came to see him.
The sound of someone calling for him sounded like an auditory hallucination.
Gong Min-ji was standing in front of the door.
--- pp.207-208

It wasn't that I had any feelings for Gong Min-ji.
He realized that it was a very personal thing.
It had nothing to do with Gongminji.
It had nothing to do with anyone.
However, I was observing myself in the process of accepting that I was growing old at any moment, and that not only my body and appearance, but also my mind and inner self were growing old and weak in an instant.
It wasn't sexual desire that got me excited by the sounds coming from inside the bathroom.
It wasn't about sexual desire or love, which he considered most important in his life.
It was a pity for oneself, longing for what was once there, and desperately longing for something that had now disappeared and vanished.
In a short time, it seemed like he knew everything.
It was so bitter and lonely that I couldn't bear it.
--- pp.209-210

As we neared the top of the mountain, the sky became higher.
I was out of breath and dizzy, but I felt much better.
She sat on a flat rock and caught her breath.
I looked at the winding mountain ridge.
It had been quite some time since I had moved into the training center's mud house, but this was my first time climbing a mountain.
“If I had known it was this cool, I would have come up more often,” she muttered to herself, catching her breath.
I looked around.
When she looked back, as if looking back at the path she had taken, she saw the sea in the distance.
As the doctor said, the sea begins at the end of the land.
“Oh, so pretty.” A smile spread across her face naturally.
The sea resembled the color of the sky.
I looked far away at the faint boundary where the sea and the sky met.
The bright sunlight broke through, and she shed a few tears.

--- pp.223-224

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The lamp of the body is the eye. If, therefore, your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If, therefore, the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matthew 6:21-23)
Back when I dreamed of becoming a novelist, when I pondered "what I should write about," I vowed to myself: "For the poor in spirit" and the "lowly"! However, I have no idea what it means to be poor in spirit, and I hesitate to readily side with the lowly.
Reflecting on my grand dreams, I will become more desperate in the future.
- From the author's words

Young writer Baek Ga-heum guides us through the most personal and universal drama of old age.
Is a staggering old age the cruel future he foresees? But Baek Yong-hyun isn't the only one who opens and closes doors, asking for his own name, because he doesn't know who he is.
Young Gong Min-ji also carries the entire weight of her past, and rather than recognizing herself, she repeats empty attempts to recreate something she is not.
Whether old or young, we are all equally shaken by emotions that cannot be broken down or defined.
Humans are not allowed any other direction in life other than filling the void.
Life is about moving forward without knowing where to go.
Baek Ga-heum arranges old age and youth with equal density, like a spider spreading its web in all directions.
Through the wandering of the elderly and young people, who all wait for the light of existence in the midst of anxious nothingness, the psychological drama is transformed into a moral drama.
- Kim In-hwan (literary critic) “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The lamp of the body is the eye. If, therefore, your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If, therefore, the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matthew 6:21-23)
Back when I dreamed of becoming a novelist, when I pondered "what I should write about," I vowed to myself: "For the poor in spirit" and the "lowly"! However, I have no idea what it means to be poor in spirit, and I hesitate to readily side with the lowly.
Reflecting on my grand dreams, I will become more desperate in the future.
- From the author's words

Young writer Baek Ga-heum guides us through the most personal and universal drama of old age.
Is a staggering old age the cruel future he foresees? But Baek Yong-hyun isn't the only one who opens and closes doors, asking for his own name, because he doesn't know who he is.
Young Gong Min-ji also carries the entire weight of her past, and rather than recognizing herself, she repeats empty attempts to recreate something she is not.
Whether old or young, we are all equally shaken by emotions that cannot be broken down or defined.
Humans are not allowed any other direction in life other than filling the void.
Life is about moving forward without knowing where to go.
Baek Ga-heum arranges old age and youth with equal density, like a spider spreading its web in all directions.
Through the wandering of the elderly and young people, who all wait for the light of existence in the midst of anxious nothingness, the psychological drama is transformed into a moral drama.
- Kim In-hwan (literary critic)

--- From the commentary on the work