Chapter 1 Young Bird
Chapter 2 Black Breath
Chapter 3 Seven Cheeks
Chapter 4 Iron and Blood
Chapter 5: Eyes of the Night
Chapter 6: Towards the Flower Bloom
Epilogue.
snow-covered lamp

A story you'll never forget, even after closing the book.
A heartfelt song for the souls of children who cannot bloom in the endless month of May.

"The Boy Comes" depicts the situation during the Gwangju Democratization Movement that took place over ten days starting on May 18, 1980, and the stories of those left behind, using Han Kang's characteristically sophisticated and dense prose, based on thorough research and investigation.
Dong-ho, a third-year middle school student at the time of the May 18th Gwangju Democratization Movement, witnesses the death of his friend, Jeong-dae, and ends up helping manage the bodies at the city hall.
As he collects the bodies that come into the Sangmu Hall where the joint incense burner is located every day, the fifteen-year-old boy lights a candle to comfort the silent souls of the corpses that seem to have lost a "young bird," and he is tormented by the recollection of his friend Jeong-dae's gruesome death among the corpses that "seem to be protesting yet another time by emitting a foul odor."


Jeong-dae is shot and killed by martial law troops while marching with Dong-ho as a protester. Jeong-dae's older sister, Jeong-mi, who had put her dreams on hold and entered a factory before finishing middle school to support her younger sibling, also goes missing that spring, and the siblings face tragedy.
The ordinary lives of innocent people, destroyed in an instant by the merciless violence of the state, and the injustice and sorrow felt for the innocent lives of young people are expressed in Jeong-dae's voice, which seems to scream.


It is said that on May 18, soldiers were given 800,000 rounds of ammunition to suppress the 400,000 citizens of Gwangju.
Even in this harsh atmosphere, the powerful force that led even the young children to the protest site to confront the absurdity of the state was nothing but a 'clean and fearful conscience.'
In this way, the children felt the 'pulse of the world's largest and most sublime heart' and together formed the great 'vessel of conscience' created by hundreds of thousands of citizens.
The novel reveals tragic aspects of modern and contemporary Korean history through the lives of Dong-ho and his older sisters who worked at the commercial office before and after the May 18th Gwangju Democratization Movement.
The image of those who find that being alive is a shameful pain or suffer from a sense of helplessness that prevents them from returning to their daily lives continues to this day, even after decades have passed.


Kim Eun-sook, who experienced the May 18th Democratization Movement while in her third year at Sophia Girls' High School, gave up her college life, which was filled with demonstrations calling for "Overthrow Chun Doo-hwan," and worked as an editor at a small publishing company. There, she was taken to the Seodaemun Police Station and given "seven slaps" for censoring a manuscript she was assigned to.
While working at a sewing factory, Lim Seon-ju was fired for participating in union activities to protect her 'noble self'. Later, she worked at a tailor shop and joined the commercial staff. After being taken away by the police, she was subjected to horrific torture that resulted in her bleeding continuously.
Kim Jin-su, a college student who was active in the Sangmu Office, was also arrested and suffered a terrible prison life, including torture with a Monami ballpoint pen and genital torture. After being released, he suffered from trauma and eventually committed suicide.
The novel vividly portrays the ruthlessness of this nation, and raises fundamental questions about the cruelty and evil that continues to be perpetrated by humans not only in the past but also in the present, not only in our country but also around the world, with the same cruelty engraved in our genes.


“You lead me to the light, to the shining side,
I hope you will be drawn towards the flowers that bloom.

Through this work, Han Kang painstakingly unfolds the hidden stories of those who suffered in silence during the May 18th Democratization Movement, focusing on the death of the fifteen-year-old boy Dong-ho. He comforts their pain and fulfills his fateful mission of bearing witness to that era.
We reminisce about the days that people, for whom "surviving" is a disgrace, have to endure alone, and share their unhealed memories.
Author Han Kang thinks of Dongho, “walking under the street trees at the end of a hot and humid summer, surprised by the feeling of a clean, dry breeze on my face and arms.”
As the warm spring days of May pass by and we recall 'Dong-ho who could not survive that summer, Dong-ho who will never meet a morning like this again,' the author reminds us that 'everyone we meet every day is human,' and asks earnestly what kind of answer we, as humans, can give them.
So, I pray that there will be no more souls that are wronged, and that wounded souls will be able to move “toward the light, toward the shining, toward the blooming flowers” ​​and find peace.
The small candles that author Han Kang has lit with all her heart to commemorate the boy Dong-ho, who could not bloom until the end, among the 'snow-covered graves' of the victims of the May 18th Democratization Movement, will add warmth to this sad world.