Korean Book Club - ‘Impossibles adieux’, Han Kang

Discover Korean literature and explore its various themes in KCC's monthly Korean Book Club. For the book club of October, we are going to discuss the novel ‘Impossibles adieux’ by Han Kang.

 ▪ Language: French

(Korean Book Club gatherings are alternatively held in French, Dutch and English.)  

▪ Date: Thursday, November 16, 7 PM – 9 PM 

▪ Venue: Korean Cultural Center Brussels  

▪ Entrance Free - Application is necessary* 

To apply, please send an application e-mail to info@kccbrussels.be with your First name, Last Name, and telephone number.

Participants can easily purchase a copy of ‘Impossibles adieux’ at Librairie Tropismes (Galerie de Princes 11, 1000 Brussels). For more info: https://www.tropismes.com/

About the book - ‘Impossibles adieux’

Translated from Korean by Kyungran Choi et Pierre Bisiou

Published in French by Grasset

One morning in December, Gyeongha receives a message from her friend Inseon. She tells her that she is hospitalized in Seoul and asks her to join her without delay. The two women have not seen each other for more than a year, when they spent a few days together on Jeju Island. This is where Inseon lives and where, two days before this reunion, she severed two fingers while chopping wood. A neighbor and her son found her passed out at home and organized her repatriation to the mainland so that she could undergo emergency surgery. The operation went well, her index and middle fingers were able to be sewn back together, but Inseon's white parrot did not travel with her and risks dying if no one feeds him by the end of the day. Bedridden, she asks Gyeongha to do her a huge favor by taking the first plane to Jeju to save the animal.

Unfortunately, a snowstorm hits the island when Gyeongha arrives. She must reach her friend's house at all costs, but the icy wind and snow slow her down as night begins to fall. She wonders if she will arrive in time to save Inseon's bird, if she will even manage to survive the terrible cold that envelops her a little more with each of her steps. She doesn't yet suspect that a much worse nightmare awaits her at her friend's house. Painstakingly compiled, the story of Inseon's family has taken over the building she is trying to reach, archives gathered by hundreds of people to document one of the worst massacres Korea has ever seen - 30,000 civilians murdered between November 1948 and early 1949, because they were communists.

‘Impossibles adieux’ is a hymn to friendship, an eulogy to the imagination, and above all a powerful indictment against forgetting. These beautiful pages form much more than a novel, they bring to light a traumatic memory buried for decades.

About the author – Han Kang

Han Kang was born in 1970 in Gwangju, Korea. A recipient of the Yi Sang Literary Award, the Today’s Young Artist Award, and the Manhae Prize for Literature, she is the author of The Vegetarian, winner of the International Booker Prize; Human Acts; and The White Book.

When registering for a book club meeting, please respectfully consider the following:

-Due to organizational and practical limitations of our events, the number of participants for each event is strictly limited.

-Your registration will be confirmed by e-mail. In case the number of registrations exceeds the number of available seats, a waiting list will be created.

-Online registration for this event is mandatory and is done on a first come, first serve basis. Please understand that it is very unfair to refuse registrations on the one hand and observe that registered persons simply do not show up at events at the other hand.

-After having registered, please notify us formally (through e-mail) and in due time (at least before the start of the meeting) in case that you want to cancel your registration.

- Those who fail to do so, will be restricted from attending other KCC events.