Menschenwerk

Han narrates, from multiple viewpoints and time periods, a 1980 uprising that was brutally put down by South Korea's military government. At the beginning of the book I was struck by how ordinary people banded together to help each other -- in this case, working tirelessly in a makeshift morgue to help families identify their loved ones, all the while listening for the army's return. Han evocatively carries the story through time and shows the lasting effects of the government's brutality. And yet, the novel also demonstrates that people can be moved to come together and fight for each other, even in the face of brutal, senseless violence.

A book about remembering violence and death using the example of the student uprising in Gwangju in 1980. Review in German see here: mostindien.org/2024/10/18/han-kang-menschenwerk-2019/

I didn't know anything about the Gwangju Uprising in South Korea, but this book lays out the brutality of it by tracing the narratives of victims as well as victims' friends and families.

Kang is the writer for this task, and while I didn't find this "compulsively readable" (the NYT Book Review described it that way), it is an impressive and devastating novel.