Archive · 27 Oct 2025
Han Kang's 'We Do Not Part' Explores Grief and Resilience
Han Kang's new book, 'We Do Not Part', tells a story of grief, memory, and survival.
The author, Kyungha, takes care of a bird named Ama for a friend who lost her fingers in an accident.
She travels to Jeju Island, where she uncovers the island's painful history of violence.
The story explores themes of loss, the impact of the past, and resilience.
The book is about the difficulty of living and coping, and the importance of remembering and saving a life.
The novel is by Han Kang, who won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature.
The story focuses on author Kyungha, who is struggling with grief after the publication of a novel.
Kyungha travels to Jeju Island to care for her friend's pet bird, Ama.
The novel revisits the anti-communist violence of the 1940s on Jeju Island.
The novel explores themes of trauma, memory, and the resilience of survivors.
- Who
- Author Kyungha, her friend Inseon, and the bird Ama are the main characters.
- What
- A novel about trauma, loss, and the after effects of violence based in the history of Jeju Island.
- When
- Set after Han Kang won the Nobel prize in 2024.
- Where
- Seoul and Jeju Island.
- Why
- Explores the impact of historical and personal trauma.
- Author
- Han Kang
- Title
- We Do Not Part
- Translator
- e yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris
- Nobel Prize
- Won by Han Kang in 2024
- Setting
- Jeju Island, Seoul
- Focus
- Trauma, memory, and survival