Read this when
Please Look After Mom
'It's been one week since Mom went missing.' And every one of her kids is realising they never actually knew her. Call your mom. 📞
Who it's for
Park So-nyo, a 69-year-old mother from the countryside, is separated from her husband at Seoul Station and disappears, and each family member's search becomes a reckoning with how little they knew her.
Feelings it meets
What it is
Kyung-sook Shin's novel, published in Korea in 2008 and in English in 2011 in Chi-Young Kim's translation, begins when a 69-year-old mother, So-nyo, is separated from her husband in a crowded Seoul subway station and goes missing. The story moves between the perspectives of a daughter, a son, the husband and the mother herself as the family searches for her.
Where to find it
In print (Knopf/Vintage in the US, Weidenfeld & Nicolson in the UK); widely available from libraries (Libby/Hoopla) and as an audiobook. Not public domain.
Before you start
Heads up: A missing parent and implied death.
Age: Ages 14+
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet, “On Children”
