Description

By Man Asian Literary Prize winner KyungSook Shin a moving delve into a lonely psyche that follows a neglected young womans search for human connection in contemporary Seoul YZ Chin

San is twentytwo and alone when she happens upon a job at a flower shop in Seouls bustling city center Haunted by childhood rejection she stumbles through lifepainfully vulnerable stifled and unsure She barely registers to others especially by the ruthless standards of 1990s South Korea

Over the course of one hazy volatile summer San meets a curious cast of characters the nonspeaking shop owner a brash coworker quiet farmers and aggressive customers Fueled by a quiet desperation to jumpstart her life she plunges headfirst into obsession with a passing magazine photographer

In Violets bestselling author KyungSook Shin explores misogyny erasure and repressed desire as San desperately searches for both autonomy and attachment in the unforgiving reality of contemporary Korean society