Our Happy Time

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By Gong Ji-young & Sora Kim-Russell

Publisher Description

With over a million copies sold in South Korea, this is a gripping and passionate death row love story for fans of Please Look After Mother, vividly told by a major Korean talent.

Yu-Jung – beautiful, wealthy, bright – is lying in her hospital bed, recovering from her third suicide attempt, when she receives a visit that will change her life. Her no-nonsense aunt, a nun, appears by her side, and suggests Yu-Jung might accompany her on a charitable visit to death row. At her lowest ebb, Yu-Jung is resistant. But something compels her to go to the prison. There she meets Yun-Soo, a convicted murderer who will soon be put to death. And, though repulsed by his crimes, something about the depth of his suffering strikes a chord in her. Shaken by their encounter, she returns to visit him the next week. And the next...

Through their weekly, hour-long meetings Yu-Jung and Yun-Soo slowly reveal to each other the dark secrets of their pasts, the hidden traumas that have shaped their lives. In doing so they form a deep, unbreakable bond, helping one another to overcome their demons. But Yun-Soo’s hands are always in cuffs, the prison-officers are always in the background, and they can never lose sight of the fact that their happy time together is tragically brief.

Poetic and vividly told, Our Happy Time is a passionate and heart-breaking love story. It is also an important, hard-hitting and compassionate fable for our times – a story about crime, punishment, and forgiveness from a major Korean talent.

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48 Reviews

4.0

Mai ❀

Created 7 days ago

“The message and the reflection are really interesting. It's shows the cruelty and the absurdity of the carceral system and made us think about human nature, forgiveness and society. BUT, some parts make me felt really uneasy by how the author wrote it (the line about the Arab like??) and i disagree on how certain things are brought up.”

Maria Anita

Created about 1 month ago

Σαλού

Created about 2 months ago

“I was a bit off put by the author’s choice of words “…load up bombs in trucks like arabs do” to showcase the ignorance of the main character. I couldn’t decide whether the author had a certain bias or whether she was trying to show how ignorant the main character was. I believe she could have chosen other ways to illustrate the main character’s ignorance and even without that comment, the reader has established how ignorant the main character is at that point in the book. However, I did finish the book and was overall mellow by the end, the complexities of the characters really left a mark. It leaves you bereaved.”

Change and grow Diverse representation Memorable Minor characters stand out Morally ambiguous Multilayered Bleak Vivid descriptions Beautifully-written Descriptive Death Grief Murder Racism Self-harm Sexual assault Violence

guga

Created 2 months ago

“I appreciate the commentary it had but it was mostly just okay for me”

Memorable Morally ambiguous Multilayered Abuse Death Murder

Queralt

Created 5 months ago

“"What I mean is that for people who hate their mothers—let me rephrase that—for people who grow up without knowing a mother’s love, the part of us that can grow only when it receives the love that we are entitled to as children remains stunted somewhere deep inside of us." Mun Yujeong has tried to kill herself three times. Her aunt, a nun named Sister Monica, offers her an alternative to therapy: to join her for a month while she visits a death row inmate, Yunsu. She agrees and, through conversations and visits to this guy, they both learn to love life, forgive, and that caring about others is as important as caring about yourself. 'Out Happy Time' broke me. I lowkey knew this would not be a happy time. A friend had recommended me the book a year ago and had explained what it was about (maybe even spoiled the ending?), and yet it still swept me off my feet. It's a bittersweet experience though, reading this one - because it is so much about how sad things happen but then good things too, and it's somehow telling my brain that this sadness too shall pass. But in the mean time, I just messaged the friend who suggested me to read this and told her to f*ck herself, this made me feel better. This book may not be for everyone. I almost DNF it since the first 30-50 pages felt slow and boring, and I wasn't really into the story, but slowly but surely it started getting personal in a few things. So, idk, if you have ever thought having an awful "mother" had messed up with your head, maybe read it? It's a beautiful book nonetheless, slow but rewarding.”

About Gong Ji-young

Gong Ji-young is one of Korea’s most beloved and critically acclaimed novelists. She has sold more than 10 million books in South Korea alone. Her awards include the 2011 Yisand Literary Award, the 21st Century Literary Award, the Korean Novel Prize, Special Media Award, and Amnesty International for Our Happy Times. This is Gong’s first novel to be translated into English. Her books are published in China, Thailand, Japan, and the UK.