Whale's Earwax / Meteor Shower / Cosmos Soundtrack / Secret Land / Time to Listen to Silence

Suzy, the girl whose name means 'hands know'

Suzy doesn't know what it means to be deaf.
Because I haven't been able to hear since I was born.
Suji (手知), which means "hand knows," came to mean "hand knows" because her aunt accidentally wrote "hand" (手) instead of "su" (秀), meaning "outstanding" (秀), when registering her birth.
True to his name, he learned sign language as his first language.
The sign language that Suzy uses is not ordinary sign language, but a new language she created to communicate with her mother.
Since I only talked to my mom all the time, that alone was enough to communicate.
Suzy was a happy child who could create any sound in her imagination, such as the sound of clouds flowing by or waves spreading out, even if she couldn't hear any sound.


Although I had no friends, I developed many ways to play alone.
One of them is creating a song map.
As I moved from space to space, I created a song like a map.
Of course, I only sang this song in my head.
It was closer to rhythm or dancing than singing.
It took me thirty-six steps from the living room to the rooftop of the annex.
There was a tactile sensation corresponding to each step.
_Page 16 of the text

Suzy liked music.
I could feel the music not only through pitch but also through texture and weight.
When she went to a piano academy to learn, and when she saw the congregation at a deaf church singing in common sign language, Suzy was delighted to discover that she, too, could feel music.
But as Suzy's passion for music grew, her mother cut her off from the outside world even more.
Suzy stops using sign language, which she used to use only with her mother, due to her mother's incomprehensible behavior.

It's okay for us to feel the world differently

Suji's family ran a boarding house.
A large family lived there, including my grandmother, mother, aunt, and boarders.
With the help of her boarders, Suzy managed to learn Korean before entering a special school, and learned oral communication so she could communicate with people through lip movements.
However, due to his mother's opposition, he was unable to learn sign language and even after entering a special school, he was unable to get along well with his hearing-impaired peers.
But, in middle school, I first became interested in a friend named Hanmin.
The sight of him walking as one with his guide dog for the visually impaired looked perfect.
Suji, who had been loitering around Hanmin, greets Hanmin for the first time while giving him a snack for the guide dog.


“How do you say thank you?”
It was the first time.
People ask me how to say thank you in my language.
I could have just said thank you, but without realizing it, I said it with my heart full of sign language, a promise between me and my mom.
It was sign language that I hadn't used since I was little, but it suddenly came out.
The child slowly and accurately followed a series of movements, such as pointing at the other person with his hand, then bringing it near his heart and stroking it in a circular motion.
It has now become a word known only to three people on Earth.
_Page 52 of the text

Hanmin, who is colorblind and cannot distinguish colors, is not blind, but he always walks with his guide dog Marcello.
Suzy becomes close with Hanmin through many conversations with Marcello in between.
People were surprised at how Suji, who couldn't hear, and Hanmin, who was colorblind, became friends, but even Marcello, these three understood and cared for each other the best.
Suzy feels more complete when she walks with Hanmin and Marcello.
For Suzy, who had been feeling stable, a change began to come when she was in her third year of high school.

The discomfort of hearing sound

When Suzy becomes a senior in high school, the government begins subsidizing cochlear implant surgery for the hearing impaired.
Suzy's family sells their boarding house to raise money for surgery to prevent Suzy from having an accident due to her hearing loss.
The surgery is forced through regardless of Suji's wishes, who did not want the surgery.
Suzy has to endure the horrifying mechanical noises coming from her cochlear implant, in addition to the grief of losing her home, which is more precious than her own ears.
People said they were glad to hear the sound, but Suzy was more upset and sad that her peace had been taken away.
The only comfort that came to me was Hanmin and Marcello.
Hanmin suggests that Suji and he buy a guitar together to form a band, and they create a song together called "Miss Black Hole."

The day you return from a long way to reach us
You'll hear the sound of a black hole being born
That sound still travels through space
You will hear the sound of the universe being born
You have to close your eyes and ears to hear it.
Close your eyes and ears
Then you can hear it
_[Miss Black Hole] Lyrics

A bigger crisis comes to Suzy, who is having a hard time adapting to the sound.
After Hanmin and Marcello, my favorite grandmother passed away.
My grandmother sold the land where the boarding house used to be, but she kept the land in the middle.
Despite the threats of the construction companies, the house was not sold until the end, and a building in the shape of the letter 'ㅁ' was built with an empty space in the middle. The grandmother was buried in the ground in the middle of the building.
But soon after my grandmother's funeral, my mother also runs away from home.
How will Suji, left alone without a guardian, overcome this difficult moment?

Talking about how to understand people

This work is not simply a novel about understanding disability.
Beyond disability, it talks about how to understand others and myself.
Su-ji feels more than just friendship for Han-min, but is saddened by the fact that she doesn't fully understand him, angry that she can't understand her mother, who has been interfering with her happiness since she was little, and even disliking herself for trying to understand others.
For that reason, the grandmother leaves behind some words of advice before she passes away.

“Suji, whatever you do, you must first become good friends with yourself.
(Omitted) The choice is always yours to make for yourself.
Whatever you choose, remember that you know how to find beauty.
With that power, we have a duty to make the world a better place.
“Just don’t forget that.”_Page 125

Suji gradually realizes what her grandmother's request meant.
When we realize that it is okay to not understand everything perfectly and to leave what we don't know as we don't know it, we can finally let go of our anxiety.
Like Marcello, who does not overcomplicate things and runs happily to do his best at every moment.
Suzy finds a way to make the world a better place with her own power in her one life.
The thing that Suzy does best is the 'Time to Listen While Walking' business.
Suzy begins a new journey by taking walks with Hanmin and Marcello, just as she did, to create opportunities for others to look into themselves.

A masterpiece chosen unanimously by the judges

This work, which was selected by all the judges during the final judging for the Four Seasons Literary Award, was praised for its good sentences, to the point that even while reading the manuscript for judging, people felt it was a shame to read it all in one go.
The protagonist's attitude of never being ashamed of his disability shatters the illusions we have about hearing loss and instead makes us think about the inconvenience that sound causes.
Not only the main character Suji, but also the mother nicknamed 'Miss Black Hole', the grandmother buried in a grave that can only be reached by going down a pulley, Hanmin who believes he best understands the works of the painter Mark Rothko who uses intense colors, and even Marcello who gives complete love as it is, all the characters that appear are charmingly drawn and add to the fun of the novel.
The judges' praise for this work is a testament to the author's deep consideration and effort in understanding the characters in the work, which took four long years of revision.

Being willing to take the time to approach others, even when you know it's impossible to fully understand them or their story.
If you take that one step closer, things you never thought would happen will magically happen.
I believe in that magic.
I believe that we can create a society where diversity is embraced and respected through the power of magic.
_From the author's note