Greek Lessons by Han Kang translated by Deborah Smith and Emily Yae Won

Greek Lessons by Nobel Prize winner Han Kang, translated into English by Deborah Smith and Emily Yae Won is my third by this Korean author. The book was published in original in 2011 and translated only 12 years after. 

More than the other two novels I´ve read, Greek Lessons flows like a poem switching between languages. A poet, a mother whose son was taken away, about to lose her voice, is attending some evening classes of ancient Greek, held by a teacher estranged from his family, about to lose his sight. It is a gentle encounter, where foreign words are replacing the silence.

There is no plot, just life sequences out of time, with information about the past episodes of the main characters, enough to explain the rationale of the present. The woman character - unnamed, as her male counterpart - shares some mental features with the other women presences from previous books: a certain lability and mental fragility due to the social pressure and unresponsiveness of her peers. 

You read this book for the pleasure of language - in translation - and for the metaphysics surrounding the existential condition of the characters. A different literary genre that requires a different positioning and even a different amount of time dedicated to the post-reading - thinking - experience.

Rating: 4 stars