Snowy Day and Other Stories

南韓導演李滄東短篇小說集英譯本，精準呈現1980年代動盪的南韓社會眾生相

就像李滄東國際知名的電影（《燒焦的草地》、《秘密陽光》、《詩》）一樣，這些精彩、令人不安的故事，最初於1980年代在韓國出版，現在首次被翻譯成英文，探索了不公、背叛和恐懼的主題——無論是在私人層面還是國家層面。李滄東深入且令人難忘地寫下了家庭、權力與脆弱者、遵從者與叛逆者之間的衝突。

在書名故事中，根據作者自己在韓國軍隊服役的回憶，一名受過大學教育的士兵和一名工人階級的下士在一起執行哨兵勤務時，雪夜中階級的分歧導致了悲劇性的後果。在《鹿川有很多屎》中，兩兄弟一生中互相施加的心理暴力捕捉了1980年代韓國的黑暗與偏執，當時該國正為實現民主統治而掙扎。而在中篇小說《天空中的燈》中，一名年輕女子在警察手中的殘酷審訊揭示了將她推向此刻的一系列日益令人擔憂的決定。她是無辜的還是有罪的？最終，連她自己也無法回答。

The first story collection published in English by Lee Chang-dong, one of South Korea’s most celebrated and influential literary and cinematic figures

Much like Lee Chang-dong’s internationally renowned films (Burning, Secret Sunshine, and Poetry), these brilliant, unsettling tales, originally published in Korea in the 1980s and now translated into English for the first time, investigate themes of injustice, betrayal, and terror—on both an intimate and national scale. Lee writes deeply and hauntingly about conflicts between family, the powerful and the vulnerable, conformists and rebels.

In the title story, drawn from the author’s own memories of serving in the South Korean military, the class divide between a university-educated private and a working-class corporal serving sentry duty together one snowy night leads to tragic consequences. In “There’s a Lot of Shit in Nokcheon,” the psychological violence that two brothers enact on each other over the course of a lifetime captures the darkness and paranoia that pervaded Korea in the 1980s, as the country struggled toward democratic rule. And in the novella-length “A Lamp in the Sky,” a young woman’s brutal interrogation at the hands of the police reveals the series of increasingly troubling decisions that led her to this moment. Is she innocent or guilty? In the end, even she cannot say.

Snowy Day and Other Stories introduces English readers to a master storyteller.