We Do Not Part

by Han Kang
We Do Not Part cover
Good Books rating 4.35
Literary Fiction
Technical:
  • ID: 511
  • Added: 2025-09-13
  • Updated: 2025-09-18
  • ISBN: 9798217162741
  • Publisher: Random House
  • Published: 2025-01-21
  • Formats: 8
  • Reviews: 3
Buy online
Waterstones
Paperback • £9.99 Hardback • £18.99

We Do Not Part by Han Kang, Nobel Prize-winning author, is a deeply poetic and experimental novel that confronts historical traumas and the fragility of human existence. The story follows Kyungha, who travels through a brutal snowstorm to Jeju Island to save her friend Inseon's beloved pet, a white bird named Ama. This journey becomes a haunting exploration of memory, friendship, and survival amid harsh natural and historical forces. Blurring the lines between dream and reality, the novel reveals a long-buried chapter of Korean history, giving voice to those silenced by time and violence. It is both a tribute to enduring friendship and a call to remember the past, celebrating life’s resilience despite unspeakable suffering. Han Kang’s intense prose and innovative style make this work a powerful reckoning with the past and a meditation on love and loss.

Reviews
motherbookerblog.com · 2025-03-24
poignant 4.25

The story is a profound exploration of sisterhood, friendship, and the lingering wounds of the past, blending past and present with dreamlike sequences.

This review emphasizes the novel's focus on deep emotional connections, particularly sisterhood and friendship, while also addressing the haunting effects of historical trauma. The narrative fluidly shifts between timelines and reality, using dreams to blur the boundaries and deepen the impact of the story's themes. It highlights how the novel uses these elements to explore memory and healing in a layered, poetic manner. The reviewer appreciates the emotional resonance and the way the story confronts the past with sensitivity and nuance.

Quick quotes

    This is mostly a story of sisterhood, friendship and the wounds of the past.

    It moves between the past and the present and blurs reality with dreams.

    The novel explores the emotional scars left by history in a poetic and layered way.

www.theguardian.com · 2025-02-06
haunting 4.50

The novel is a haunting and harrowing portrayal of a woman’s quest intertwined with Korea's traumatic history, told through evocative and dreamlike imagery.

This review praises the novel as a masterpiece from Han Kang, highlighting its powerful use of haunting and surreal imagery to tell a deeply emotional story. The narrative is seen as a witness to Korea's painful past, with the protagonist's journey serving as a conduit for confronting historical trauma. The reviewer admires the novel’s capacity to blend the personal with the historical, creating a narrative that is both intimate and expansive in scope. It is described as unsettling but profoundly moving.

Quick quotes

    One woman's quest, told through haunting, harrowing, dreamlike imagery.

    Bears witness to Korea's traumatic past.

    A strange and unsettling new novel confronting terrible pre-war violence.

universeinwords.blogspot.com · 2025-02-06
poignant 4.30

The book is a stunning, painful exploration of history and trauma, showing how trauma is transmitted across generations and the importance of remembering.

This review reflects on the profound emotional impact of the novel, emphasizing its role in uncovering a painful historical chapter that many should know more about. The reviewer notes how the book traces trauma's silent transmission through generations and highlights the importance of memory and testimony. Appreciating the novel as both a historical indictment and a hymn to friendship and imagination, the reviewer finds it deeply moving and essential reading. They also connect it to Han Kang's broader literary work and thematic concerns.

Quick quotes

    We Do Not Part is a stunning and painful book.

    It uncovers a period of history we really all should know more about.

    A hymn to friendship, a eulogy to the imagination and above all an indictment against forgetting.

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