Petra Ben Ari Books

Compulsively readable, universally relevant and deeply resonant... It lacerates, it haunts, it dreams, it mourns... 'Human Acts' is, in equal parts, beautiful and urgent.-New York Times Book Review Human Acts is unique in the intensity and scale of this brutality... [T]he novel details a bloody history that was deliberately forgotten and is only now being recovered.-The Nation [Han Kang's] new novel, Human Acts, showcases the same talent for writing about corporeal horrors, this time in the context of the 1980 Gwangju uprising.-TIME Magazine Han Kang's Human Acts speak the unspeakable. -Vanity Fair The long wake of the killings plays out across the testimonies of survivors as well as the dead, in scenarios both gorily real and beautifully surreal.-Vulture Human Acts is stunning. Book reviews evaluate how well a book does what it sets out to do, and so we sometimes write nice things about books that perfectly fulfill trivial aims. Otherwise, we'd always be complaining that romance novels or political thrillers fail to justify the ways of God to men. But Han Kang has an ambition as large as Milton's struggle with God: She wants to reconcile the ways of humanity to itself.-NPR.org Engrossing... The result is torturously compelling, a relentless portrait of death and agony that never lets you look away. Han's prose-as translated by Deborah Smith-is both spare and dreamy, full of haunting images and echoing language. She mesmerizes, drawing you into the horrors of Gwangju; questioning humanity, implicating everyone... Unnerving and painfully immediate.-Los Angeles Times Revelatory ... nothing short of breathtaking... In the end, what Han has re- created is not just an extraordinary record of human suffering during one particularly contentious period in Korean history, but also a written testament to our willingness to risk discomfort, capture, even death in order to fight for a cause or help others in times of need.-San Francisco Chronicle But where Kang excels is in her unflinching, unsentimental descriptions of death. I am hard pressed to think of another novel that deals so vividly and convincingly with the stages of physical decay. Kang's prose does not make for easy reading, but there is something admirable about this clear-eyed rendering of the end of life.-Boston Globe Absorbing... Han uses her talents as a storyteller of subtlety and power to bring this struggle out of the middle distance of 'history' and into the intimate space of the irreplaceable human individual.-Minneapolis Star-Tribune Kang explores the sprawling trauma of political brutality with impressive nuance and the piercing emotional truth that comes with masterful fiction... a fiercely written, deeply upsetting, and beautifully human novel.-Kirkus Reviews Kang is an incredible storyteller who raises questions about the purpose of humanity and the constant tension between good and evil through the heartbreaking experiences of her characters. Her poetic language shifts fluidly from different points of view, while her fearless use of raw, austere diction emulates the harsh conflicts and emotions raging throughout the plot. This jarring portrayal of the Gwangju demonstrations will keep readers gripped until the end.-Booklist (starred) With Han Kang's The Vegetarian awarded the 2016 Man Booker International Prize, her follow-up will garner extra scrutiny. Bottom line? This new work, again seamlessly translated by Deborah Smith, who also provides an indispensable contextual introduction, is even more stupendous.-Library Journal (starred) Pristine, expertly paced, and gut-wrenching... Human Acts grapples with the fallout of a massacre and questions what humans are willing to die for and in turn what they must live through. Kang approaches these difficult and inexorable queries with originality and fearlessness, making Human Acts a must-read for 2017.-Chicago Review of Books Though her subject matt

Někde zvoní telefon (2010) sleduje osudy čtyř mladých hrdinů v pohnuté době politických nepokojů v Korejské republice 80. let 20. století. Hlavní postavu románu, vzdělanou a literárně činnou Čong Jun, vrhne zpět do víru vzpomínek na její vysokoškolská léta v Soulu nenadálý telefonát od někdejšího přítele. Prostřednictvím návratu do svého mládí znovu prožívá euforickou lásku i bolestné ztráty, které jsou neoddělitelně propletené s tragickými událostmi na pozadí tehdejšího militantního režimu, který neváhal obrátit ozbrojenou moc proti studentským hnutím. Kniha prozkoumává otázky, zda lze najít v životě s milovaným člověkem útočiště před nejistotou a samotou a nakolik se naše osobní směřování formuje v době našeho dospívání.

Sixty-five short interconnected chapters portray humanity and all its suffering and resiliency.

Jednoho brzkého rána probudí šestadvacetiletého Judžina podivný kovový zápach a telefonát od jeho bratra, který se ptá, jestli je doma vše v pořádku – uprostřed noci totiž volala jejich matka. Judžin nedlouho poté objeví její mrtvé tělo ležící v kaluži krve pod schodištěm v jejich stylovém soulském apartmánu. Předešlou noc si však příliš dobře nepamatuje, jelikož celý život trpí záchvaty a má problémy s pamětí. Vše, co si vybavuje, je chabá vzpomínka, v níž matka volá jeho jméno. Křičela snad o pomoc? Nebo prosila o svůj život? Pro Judžina tím začíná zběsilé třídenní pátrání po tom,co se té noci stalo, ale zároveň odhaluje i tajemství svá a své rodiny. Šokující a návykový psychologický thriller Vzorný syn zkoumá s neuvěřitelnou naléhavostí záhady mysli a paměti i pokroucený vztah mezi matkou a synem.

Told in a brutally honest voice that at times simmers with impotent rage, Kim Hye-jin's Concerning My Daughter taps into the complexities of mother-daughter dynamics, but also the systemic issues and obstacles that LGBTQ communities face in heteronormative societies.

Yeong-hye and her husband are ordinary people. He is an office worker with moderate ambitions and mild manners; she is an uninspired but dutiful wife. The acceptable flatline of their marriage is interrupted when Yeong-hye, seeking a more 'plant-like' existence, decides to become a vegetarian, prompted by grotesque recurring nightmares. In South Korea, where vegetarianism is almost unheard-of and societal mores are strictly obeyed, Yeong-hye's decision is a shocking act of subversion. Her passive rebellion manifests in ever more bizarre and frightening forms, leading her bland husband to self-justified acts of sexual sadism. His cruelties drive her towards attempted suicide and hospitalisation. She unknowingly captivates her sister's husband, a video artist. She becomes the focus of his increasingly erotic and unhinged artworks, while spiralling further and further into her fantasies of abandoning her fleshly prison and becoming - impossibly, ecstatically - a tree.Fraught, disturbing and beautiful, The Vegetarian is a novel about modern day South Korea, but also a novel about shame, desire and our faltering attempts to understand others, from one imprisoned body to another.

An eerie and absorbing novel following a criminal psychologist who has discovered shocking and possibly dangerous connections between a serial killer and her stepdaughter Criminal psychologist Seonkyeong receives an unexpected call one day. Yi Byeongdo, a serial killer whose gruesome murders shook the world, wants to be interviewed. Yi Byeongdo, who has refused to speak to anyone until now, asks specifically for her. Seonkyeong agrees out of curiosity. That same day Hayeong, her husband's eleven-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, shows up at their door after her grandparents, with whom she lived after her mother passed away, die in a sudden fire. Seonkyeong wants her to feel at home, but is gradually unnerved as the young girl says very little and acts strangely. At work and at home, Seonkyeong starts to unravel the pasts of the two new arrivals in her life and begins to see startling similarities. Hayeong looks at her the same way Yi Byeongdo does when he recounts the abuse he experienced as a child; Hayeong's serene expression masks a temper that she can't control. Plus, the story she tells about her grandparents' death, and her mother's before that, deeply troubles Seonkyeong. So much so that Yi Byeongdo picks up on it and starts giving her advice. Written with exquisite precision and persistent creepiness, The Only Child is psychological suspense at its very best.