Thank you @netgalley for the ARC of We So Not Part. I loved The Vegetarian by Han Kang so I was excited to read this book by her. The writing is gorgeous, but the story fell a little flat for me. I enjoyed the start and the story of Inseon’s family is horrible, but I think I would have liked either more story about the two friends or a complete story about the family.

Kyungha is called to Seoul by her friend Inseon when she injure herself woodchopping. She must get back to her house to care for Inseon’s pet bird. Through the book, the story of Inseon’s family is revealed about a massacre on the island.

This is a heart wrenching novel. It was a hard but important book to read. I had to pause at times and take a breather. This was a beautifully written book, and I’m glad I read it.

Beautifully written and heartbreaking story of the after effects of the trauma from those that survived genocide during the Korean War. Hard to read at times, but important.

We Do Not Part
by Han Kang
Translated from Korean by e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris
Genre: Literary Fiction
Sub-genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 272
Rating: 4.5/5
To be published: 21st January, 2025

Even a splintered match stick will burst into light if we swipe its tip against the striking surface with the right force. To me, this is the moral hidden in We Do Not Part.

What we see in the light of the flame depends on us. In that flame, we may see a dear friend, we may see our lost history, we may see ourselves, or we may see everything intertwined together such that parting is not possible. We Do Not Part.

Kyungha and Inseon are friends who do not part, in life and even under the threat of death. The friendship between these two women—one writes and other other makes documentaries—is the emotional setting of this novel, and throughout, this friendship steers the novel into light and darkness

Inseon lives in Jeju, and through Inseon's eyes and soul which reflects the buried memories of Inseon's mother, Kyungha, and thus the readers of this novel, trace the traumatic and buried Korean history of the 1948 Jeju Massacre and following events, which led to the barbaric killing of about 30,000 Jeju islanders.

The exhumation of the Jeju international airport from 2006 to 2010 (project stalled due to lack of budget) unearthed around 400 bodies of people, mostly civilians who were grouped and shot to death in rows of 10, one after another, irrespective of gender and age. Similar shootings took place in mining sites and by the sea, and in the fields.

Like the buried bodies under the airport and in the sea and the mining sites, in We Do Not Part, history remains buried in the lost memory of Inseon's mother, who had lost her brother and sister in the Yeosu-Suncheon rebellion.

We Do Not Part talks about this buried history. But We Do Not Part is much more than a historical fiction in its scope and execution. In its simplest form, it is poetry, metaphors and motifs.

In its deeper exploration, it is an account of intergenerational trauma that has been passed on, sometimes unbeknownst, and which will surface, sometimes as art, sometimes as dreams, sometimes as ghosts and sometimes as a flickering flame.

In its deepest bidding, We Do Not Part is a call to remember and honour our history and memories.

The half-burnt candle in Inseon's hand, as it cast light in the darkness was a metaphor that did such brilliant justice to the subject of the novel. It is simple, yet so apt!

At this point, Han Kang is already known for the intelligence with which she stitches together her plot. Yet, how a certain action, with it own isolated identity, reappear in the plot under the guise or identity of another action, and later at the end of the novel, reveals itself as a motif and a promise, holding together the essence of the entire novel, steals my breath away! I won't elaborate on this as I want readers to discover this themselves and then bask in its brilliance.

Two birds, Ama and Ami, flutter in this novel.

In this novel, snow falls.

Dreams and our desires can take us to a time and space, where nothing is impossible, and everything is real.

Even if birds do not flutter, even if the snow keeps falling, even when darkness lasts longer and even if we lose sense of dream and reality, still, with our essence, We Do Not Part.

In We Do Not Part, we see glimpses of a novel and some documentaries written and created by Kyungha and Inseon respectively.

In some alternate reality, I have read that novel and seen those documentaries, and that I feel so is because of the brilliance of Han Kang and the power of her words. Even the most abstract scene in this novel (I use the word 'scene' because We Do Not Part is very sensory—I saw the snow, tasted the tea, touched the cold skin, heard the birds and smelled the deaths in the excavation sites) finally leads to something very solid in the plot. When readers land upon these firm grounds, they will exclaim with joy at the brilliance of the novel, but maybe a tear will also seep through their eyes. This book made me feel so much that often I had to take breaks in-between reading, and process the emotions in the pages, as they took turns in my heart. The 272 pages felt like 500 pages at least, and took as much reading time as well.

The history in the novel is seen only in vignettes, probably because exposure to all of it in one go in one novel may be unbearable to many readers. Those who want to know more can easily access more details from the internet. Despite the dark history it is seeped in, We Do Not Part is a story of light.

Translating a book like We Do Not Part from Korean to English, with such a bouquet of nuances in it, is no easy job. My heartfelt gratitude to the courage and hard work of translators, e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris for bringing this book to global readers. I will definitely explore more translations by them.

The other three books of Han Kang I have read (in English)—The Vegetarian, The White Book and Greek Lessons, felt closer to the Korean undertone while We Do Not Part felt more 'international'. I wonder if this is due to a change in Han Kang's writing style or due to the translation. These other three books are translated by Deborah Smith, with Greek Lessons co-translated by e. yaewon. This impression comes from reading other novels translated from Korean, and watching Korean content with subtitles.

This was a 5/5 reading for me, but I will rate it 4.5/5, rounded to 5, without wanting to change even a single bit of the book. Every brilliant body casts a shadow; the shadow of We Do Not Part lies in the way the novel begins, keeping readers unsure of what is happening. As a Han Kang fan, it worked for me, because I have complete trust in the author to know that the book will not be lost in dreams and strangeness. But for some new readers of Kang, this maybe concerning. I expect some readers to get lost in the first quarter of the book, and some later too. Yet, this is the perfect beginning, perfect everything for this novel. That's why I call this the shadow of a bright, brilliant book.

My immense thanks to NetGalley and Random House (Hogarth) for giving me this unexpected opportunity to read an ARC of this novel. However, my gratitude is not a part of the review, and every opinion expressed in this review is honest. Of course this review is influenced by the fact that I am a Han Kang fan, but I am her fan because I love how she infuses brilliance and intelligence to the craft of writing, which is again so evident in We Do Not Part.


Q: Do I recommend We Do Not Part by Han Kang to my fellow readers?
A: Absolutely, absolutely; provided you enjoy literary fiction.

A heartwrenching tale of love between two women in Seoul, we follow the lives of Kyungha as she receives a message from her dear friend. They haven't seen each other in over a year, and this is the tale of what led up to that separation as the friend is now bedridden. The story looks into that friendships mean, how perception of society can rip them apart, and the conviction needed to stay together.