Winner of the 2021 National Book Award for Translated Literature
Shortlisted for The Scott Moncreiff Prize 2021
As if Marguerite Duras wrote Convenience Store Woman – a beautiful, unexpected novel from a debut French Korean author
It’s winter in Sokcho, a tourist town on the border between South and North Korea. The cold slows everything down. Bodies are red and raw, the fish turn venomous, beyond the beach guns point out from the North’s watchtowers. A young French Korean woman works as a receptionist in a tired guesthouse. One evening, an unexpected guest arrives: a French cartoonist determined to find inspiration in this desolate landscape.
The two form an uneasy relationship. When she agrees to accompany him on trips to discover an ‘authentic’ Korea, they visit snowy mountaintops and dramatic waterfalls, and cross into North Korea. But he takes no interest in the Sokcho she knows – the gaudy neon lights, the scars of war, the fish market where her mother works. As she’s pulled into his vision and taken in by his drawings, she strikes upon a way to finally be seen.
An exquisitely-crafted debut, which won the Prix Robert Walser, Winter in Sokcho is a novel about shared identities and divided selves, vision and blindness, intimacy and alienation. Elisa Shua Dusapin’s voice is distinctive and unmistakable.
‘Beautifully translated from the French by Aneesa Abbas Higgins, comes together slowly, like a Polaroid photo, its effects both intimate and foreign.’ — TLS
‘A masterful short novel’ — New Statesman
‘A punchy first novel.’ — Guardian Top 10 Best New Books in Translation
‘Enigmatic, beguiling… This finely crafted debut explores topics of identity and heredity in compelling fashion. In its aimless, outsider protagonist there are echoes of Sayaka Murata’s Convenience Store Woman.’ — Irish Times
‘The bustling seaside resort of Sokcho in South Korea is the perfect backdrop for this quietly haunting debut.’ — Daily Mail
‘Crisp and poetic.’ — i
‘Dazzling.’ —Vogue Top Five Debuts
‘Oiled with a brooding tension that never dissipates or resolves, Winter in Sokcho is a noirish cold sweat of a book.’— Guardian
‘Dusapin’s debut may be short, but it’s incredibly atmospheric, and takes you on a journey with intriguingly complex characters. Bonus: the cover is really cool.’ — Tatler Magazine
‘Elisa Shua Dusapin’s first-person narrative is formed of crystalline sentences that favour lucid imagery to describe themes of loneliness, familial obligation, identity, societal pressures and sexuality.’ — ArtReview Asia
‘A fascinating portrait of life in modern Korea.’ — S Magazine
‘(A) haunting portrait of an out-of-season tourist town on the border between North and South Korea … The story that unfolds is chilling.’ — Monocle
‘Winter in Sokcho is a tale heavy with tension and melancholy … A poignant coming of age story.’ — The Hourglass
‘A masterpiece.’ — Huffington Post
‘A vivid, tactile, often claustrophobic, and gorgeously written novel. An absolute joy from beginning to end.’ — Lara Williams, author of Supper Club
‘Narrated in an elegant, enigmatic voice that skilfully summons the tenderness and mutability of an inner life, Winter in Sokcho is a lyrical and atmospheric work of art.’ – Sharlene Teo, author of Ponti
‘A spellbinding debut novel, Winter in Sokcho is about intimacy and alienation in a remarkable setting.’ – i-D Magazine Best Books of 2020
‘A tender and poetic first novel.’ – Le Monde
‘Mysterious, beguiling, and glowing with tender intelligence, Winter in Sokcho is a master class in tension and atmospherics, a study of the delicate, murky filaments of emotion that compose a life. Dusapin has a rare and ferocious gift for pinning the quick, slippery, liveness of feeling to the page: her talent is a thrill to behold.’ – Alexandra Kleeman, author of You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine
‘I haven’t encountered a voice like this since Duras – spellbinding.’ – ELLE (France)
‘Atmospheric, exquisitely written and highly charged.’ – Olivia Sudjic, author of Sympathy
‘Remarkable in its formal daring and maturity.’ – Lire
