Book Review: Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin translated by Aneesa Abbas Higginsa

 

I did it again! Second day in a row, I´ve read a book originally written in French in the English translation. This time was on purpose as the translation by Aneesa Abbas Higgins of Winter in Sokcho by the Korean-French Switzerland-based Elisa Shua Dusapin just won the National Book Award 2021 for translation. Considered by The Guardian one of the 10 Best New Books in Translation, it won over translations of books like Planet of Clay by Samar Yazbek or When we Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut. 

From the ´words in translation´ point of view, I did not feel like I am reading a work which was originally written in another language. The text flows faultless and it is a pleasure to read it.

The action of the novel takes place in Sokcho, a city in South Korea, 60 km. away from the border with North Korea. The unnamed narrator, a young woman in her 20s, returned there after university studies in the capital city of Seoul. She is working in a motel, almost empty during the winter months, in the city where she was born. Her mother works in the fish market and she never met her father, a Frenchman. When suddenly a tourist arrives, a Frenchman that may be of her father´s age, who is set to stay in Sokcho indefinitely, her world seems to change in violent outbursts. It is the fascination of someone/something new that challenges her otherwise uneventful daily schedule. It does not mean that something will happen between her and the foreigner - they may go eating in some places, he is talking with her a bit about his life and work as an illustrator, they talk about Normandy from where he is from, Monet, Maupassant...

´Okay. Tell me what you want me to look like´.

The subrreptitious element of surprise, as an existential deviation - mathematically sizeable - of the routine, is better reflected into the body. The narrator is overstuffing herself only for throwing up afterwards as a reaction of the body to the new - new thoughts, new people, abandonment of routines. It´s like the seismic wave of change is hitting lastly and the most violently the flesh of the body. But the same body is expected to look good, perfect, refined and sculpted through plastic surgery (South Korea is considered the center of beauty industry in the world). Her soon to be ex-boyfriend is into it. Her mother smelling of fish recommend it to her. Her aunt too. Maybe she is thinking about it as well. 

Winter in Sokcho is evocative and raises questions about how do we project or are projected into other people´s lives. It is also a book about solitude and loneliness of the body and the soul. 

I personally loved the cover too, which looks like a stereotypical travel billboard which suits any beach destination, no matter the country or the specific location.

The story of Winter in Sokcho does not necessarily resonate with my literary expectations but it´s well written/translated and do have that necessary troubling effect which has the potential to put under question your daily reality and routine of the mind.

Rating: 3.5 stars