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Untold Night and Day
Untold Night and Day | Bae Suah
9 posts | 10 read | 10 to read
A hypnotic, disorienting story of parallel lives unfolding over a day and a night in the sweltering heat of Seoul's summer For two years, twenty-eight-year-old Kim Ayami has worked at Seoul's only audio theatre for the blind. But now the theatre is shutting down and Ayamis future is uncertain. Her last shift completed and the theatre closed for good, Ayami walks the streets of the city with her former boss late into the night. Together they search for a mutual friend who has disappeared. The following day, at the request of that same friend, Ayami acts as a guide for a detective novelist visiting from abroad. But in the inescapable, all-consuming heat of Seoul at the height of the summer, order gives way to chaos, the edges of reality start to fray, and the past intrudes on the present in increasingly disruptive ways. Blisteringly original, Untold Night and Day is a high-wire feat of storytelling that explores the possibility of worlds beyond the one we see and feel and shows why Bae Suah is considered one of the boldest voices in Korean literature today.
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Mogoeg
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Pickpick

Hypnotic and beautifully written, a surreal fever dream full of disturbing details and repeating, reforming, and recursive scenes and stories. Highly experimental, the best analogy I can give is of taking a strong edible and then going to an independent theater on a hot August day to cool your body in AC while melting your brain with some super weird foreign experimental filmmaking. I‘m excited to experience more of Bae Suah‘s work.

Dilara Sounds fantastic! I read - and loved - A Greater Music. 2y
mcipher Great review!! 2y
73 likes1 stack add2 comments
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ju.ca.no
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Another book I bought because of @Tanisha_A !
Luckily I‘m easily convinced when it comes to books. This one sounds great and I‘m in love with the shiny cover🥰

AlaMich 😻 4y
candority I love that cover! 4y
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ReadingEnvy
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Panpan

I can't make any sense of this book. I can't tell what's real or what's not. I can't understand how what seems imagined or historical in one scene is real in another. I don't understand how the characters seem to switch places and identities and also move between real and imagined (they also seem lost and confused.) ↘️

ReadingEnvy I don't understand what is meant to be a deep connection to The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat, a short novel of similar tone I read earlier this year and also didn't understand.↘️ 4y
ReadingEnvy The translator Deborah Smith has obviously gone deep with this author and this feverish style; apparently the author is considered an outsider in Korean lit as well. I might point you first to her translator note, which is the last few pages, before reading the novel.

I read this in #hoopla because it is on the tournament of books longlist, and because it's short. You should read it at your own risk!

While we are here, which cover is better?
4y
31 likes2 comments
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DGRachel
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Pickpick

I‘m not sure what I just read or how to rate it. It‘s a twisty tale with odd repetitions that make the reader question everything, but at the same time, provides no answers. I may have given up if it hadn‘t been such a short book, but then again I felt compelled to continue despite my confusion. Suah excels at creating a tangible atmosphere-you can feel the heat and humidity, and there‘s this sense of oppressive dread throughout.

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Abailliekaras
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Pickpick

Incredible. Lucid writing and translation, singular characters, and a propulsive story that pulls the rug out from under your feet. The comparison with David Lynch is apt, with recurring motifs & moving from reality to the surreal. I almost understood what was happening, but not quite. Ideas of memory & the impermanence of things, & she plays with blindness & vision. Tightly written, engaging and will give your brain a workout. #witmonth

Hazel2019 Great cover! 4y
Megabooks Great review! 4y
Abailliekaras @megabooks thank you! ☺️ @hazel2019 yes the cover drew me in. 😍 4y
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DGRachel
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Today was a good mail day. My latest round of #TailoredBookRecommendations from #myTBR arrived: gotta love a strong stack of #WOC authors. 💖 I hadn‘t heard of the tagged book before, but I‘m excited for all of these. I also finally received my FaeCrate Empire of Gold hangover recovery kit and I‘ll post that under a spoiler tag in a few minutes. 💖 #bookmail #bookhaul

MallenNC I have TBR but just the email recommendations. I love it! 4y
DGRachel @MallenNC I was really struggling mentally at the beginning of lockdown that I signed up for a second account with a different email address. I‘ve had the email only version for a year and a half. This is my second hardcover delivery and I love both. 4y
MallenNC @DGRachel I‘ve been considering changing over. 4y
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DGRachel @MallenNC I like the email one since you can get recommendations of older titles, not just new releases. But I like the hardcover version because I love book mail. LOL 4y
MallenNC @DGRachel Book mail is the best! 4y
Laughterhp The City We Became was weird, but actually really good. 4y
46 likes6 comments
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Abailliekaras
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My Women In Translation readathon TBR is up now on Books On The Go 📚📹 . #WITMonth

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