Medici Prize Winner Han Kang: "Nine Years Led by Dreams... Now the Nightmare Ends"

Novel on the April 3 Incident 'I Do Not Say Goodbye'
Wins France Medici Foreign Literature Award
"Next Work Will Be a Novel About Life"

On a field where snow falls heavily, thousands of black logs are planted. Looking closely, they seem to be tombstones. While wondering who would have placed tombstones in such a place, the tide begins to rise. Without a shovel, how can these ashes be moved? As I was flustered, I woke up from the dream.

At the award commemorative press conference held on the 14th at the Korean Broadcasting Hall in Mokdong, Yangcheon-gu, Seoul, author Han Kang said that her novel “I Do Not Part” began from a dream she had in the summer of 2014. The novel depicts the massacre of about 30,000 civilians in Jeju from November 1948 to February of the following year. In France, the translation was done by Choi Kyung-ran and Pierre Bizieux, and it was published at the end of August this year under the title Impossibles adieux (“Impossible Farewells”). It was selected as the winner of the M?dicis Foreign Literature Award, one of the four major literary awards in France this year.

Han Kang, who received the French Medici Foreign Literature Prize for her novel "No Farewell," is giving a greeting at a press conference held on the 14th at the Korea Broadcasting Center in Mokdong, Yangcheon-gu, Seoul.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

According to Han Kang, the M?dicis award ceremony was held in a restaurant where they only took photos and drank champagne without plaques, judges’ comments, or acceptance speeches. Han Kang said, “I liked the free atmosphere, which was different from other award ceremonies,” and explained that everyone deeply understood the work. “There was no need to explain the Jeju incident (the April 3rd Incident) at the event (award ceremony). Just following the book allowed that experience to happen.”

The novel is a trilogy that unfolds the tragedy of the Jeju April 3rd Incident through the perspectives of three women. Han Kang explained, “Part 1 is about (the novelist Gyeongha) braving a snowstorm from Seoul to Jeju to visit (her friend) Inseon’s remote house; Part 2 is about descending into the night of humanity’s past while going through the memories of Inseon’s mother, Jeongshim, at Inseon’s house; and Part 3 is structured around lighting a candle at the very bottom after descending to the lowest point.”

Regarding the title, she emphasized the double meaning of “not saying goodbye” and “really not saying goodbye,” saying, “Korean sentences can omit the subject and thus can be interpreted in various ways, but European languages require a subject, so I was curious about how to translate the title.” She added, “The French version was given the title Impossibles adieux (‘Impossible Farewells’), which cleverly preserved the meaning.”

About her next work, Han Kang referred to “The Boy is Coming” (2014), which deals with the Gwangju Democratization Movement, and this novel “I Do Not Part” as “a pair,” saying that after nine winters, she now wants to enter spring. She expressed a desire to handle brighter themes after dealing with such heavy content. Han Kang said, “Novels are not intentionally planned but tend to happen that way. When I start writing a novel, many walls and causes intersect, and there comes a moment when I think, ‘Ah~ this will become a novel.’” She added, “I will write as it comes, but my heart wants to move from winter to spring.” The nightmare that led the author to write the novel has also stopped. “Thankfully, I no longer have the nightmares that started when I was writing The Boy is Coming.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.