Our Happy Time

About

A death-row inmate and a woman who has attempted suicide three times meet through a prison visitation programme. He killed three people. She has tried to kill herself. Over a series of Thursday visits, they form a bond that neither expected — not romantic exactly, but something rarer: the recognition of shared damage. Kong Ji-young's novel asks whether two people this broken can offer each other anything worth having, and answers with a story that is unsentimental about suffering but generous about the possibility of grace. A novel about forgiveness that earns the word by making you understand exactly how much there is to forgive.