Familiar Things
About
On the outskirts of Seoul's glittering metropolis lies Flower Island — a vast landfill where the city's refuse and its discarded people end up together. Fourteen-year-old Bugeye arrives with his mother after his father's internment in a government re-education camp. He survives by sorting recyclables from the garbage. Then one night, he sees mysterious lights hovering above the trash heaps. Hwang Sok-yong, one of Korea's most important living writers, transforms a garbage dump into a landscape as vivid and strange as any fantasy world. Through Bugeye's eyes, the landfill becomes a complete society with its own hierarchies, friendships, and even beauty — a place where the things Seoul throws away form the foundation of an entirely different kind of life. A coming-of-age story set in the place a wealthy city would rather forget — and a reminder that nothing discarded ever truly disappears.
