Violets
By Kyung-Sook Shin & Anton HurPublisher Description
By Man Asian Literary Prize winner Kyung-Sook Shin, "a moving delve into a lonely psyche" that follows a neglected young woman's search for human connection in contemporary Seoul (YZ Chin).
San is twenty-two and alone when she happens upon a job at a flower shop in Seoul’s bustling city center. Haunted by childhood rejection, she stumbles through life—painfully vulnerable, stifled, and unsure. She barely registers to others, especially by the ruthless standards of 1990s South Korea.
Over the course of one hazy, volatile summer, San meets a curious cast of characters: the nonspeaking shop owner, a brash coworker, quiet farmers, and aggressive customers. Fueled by a quiet desperation to jump-start her life, she plunges headfirst into obsession with a passing magazine photographer.
In Violets, best-selling author Kyung-Sook Shin explores misogyny, erasure, and repressed desire, as San desperately searches for both autonomy and attachment in the unforgiving reality of contemporary Korean society.
Download the free Fable app
Stay organized
Keep track of what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next.
Build a better TBR
Swipe, skip, and save with our smart list-building tool
Rate and review
Share your take with other readers with half stars, emojis, and tags
Curate your feed
Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesStay organized
Keep track of what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next.Build a better TBR
Swipe, skip, and save with our smart list-building toolRate and review
Share your take with other readers with half stars, emojis, and tagsCurate your feed
Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities5 Reviews
Nabe
Created about 2 months agowasabiapple
Created 5 months ago
“"Slice of life" novel for sad girls 🙋♀️Loneliness written in heart-wrenchingly beautiful prose. San is born as "an uncelebrated girl" and takes the disinterest her family has in her and their eventual abandonment in stride. However, when she opens her heart to her best friend, only to be violently rejected for her queerness, San emotionally alienates herself from others. She becomes a hollow character, best depicted in how her desire to become a writer encompasses repeatedly copying the same passages from her favorite novels in her notebook. Although intentional on the author's part, she can make for a frustrating main character for the reader. At 22 she finds work as a florist and meets an interesting cast of characters, all the while keeping them at arm's length in spite of their desire for closeness. A chance meeting with a photographer reignites the pain and sorrow San felt in her childhood, threatening a mental breakdown.
I initially enjoyed the rich writing in spite of the lack of momentum in this book (initially at 4 stars), but as the final chapters reached a crescendo in the story, Shin's perfect orchestration of themes, symbolism, and trauma left me breathless.”Lindsey Sinnwell
Created 5 months ago
Skye 🎶
Created 6 months ago
“I finished this book in about half a day, not because it's a relatively short book, but because it's really addictive to read. It gives me similar vibes to A Little Life, but the ending was totally unexpected and threw me off guard that I had to lay down on my floor for a good hour, trying to process what happened. I wasn't entirely satisfied with the ending, but that's only because it really came out of nowhere and made me contemplate life for a bit.”About Kyung-Sook Shin
Kyung-Sook Shin is one of South Korea’s most widely read and acclaimed novelists. She has been awarded the Man Asian Literary Prize, the Manhae Grand Prize for Literature, the Dong-in Literature Prize, the Yi Sang Literary Prize, and many others, including France’s Prix de l’Inaperçu. Shin is the author of multiple books, including The Girl Who Wrote Loneliness, I’ll Be Right There, The Court Dancer, and the New York Times-bestselling Please Look After Mom, which has been published in over forty countries.
Anton Hur has won the PEN Translates and PEN/Heim grants for literary translation. His other work includes the English translations of Sang Young Park’s Love in the Big City (Grove) and Bora Chung’s Cursed Bunny (Honford Star). He resides in Seoul.
Start a Book Club
Start a public or private book club with this book on the Fable app today!FAQ
Do I have to buy the ebook to participate in a book club?
Why can’t I buy the ebook on the app?
How is Fable’s reader different from Kindle?
Do you sell physical books too?
Are book clubs free to join on Fable?
How do I start a book club with this book on Fable?
Similar Books
