I Went To See My Father
Translated by Anton Hur
About
Two years after losing her daughter in a tragic accident, Hon returns to her childhood home in the Korean countryside to care for her aging father. He seems merely withdrawn and fragile — an old man, awkward but kind. Then Hon discovers a chest of letters, and the quiet surface of her father's life cracks open to reveal a history of violence, passion, and secrets kept for decades. Kyung-Sook Shin, author of Please Look After Mom, writes about family with the precision of an archaeologist — each layer of discovery revealing something that changes the meaning of everything above it. Hon's grief for her daughter and her growing understanding of her father become inseparable, two forms of the same question: how well do we really know the people we love? A novel about the moment you stop seeing your parent as a role and start seeing them as a person — with all the terror and tenderness that entails.
