Son Hong-Kyu

Several decades after the Korean War, the unnamed narrator of this story is taken in by an aged Turk, Uncle Hassan, who makes a living as a butcher in a Seoul slum. The novel begins with “my adoptive father’s blood flows in my body” and ends with an echo, “my adoptive father’s blood is still flowing in my body.” In between, the narrator is healed by flawed but sympathetic characters.