DD's Umbrella

Jungeun Hwang, E Yaewon, Alyea Canada

Book cover for DD's Umbrella
Book cover for DD's Umbrella

DD's Umbrella

DD's Umbrella

Jungeun Hwang, E Yaewon, Alyea Canada

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Description
Han Kang meets Maggie Nelson in these devastating twin novellas offering a rare depiction of the nonbinary experience in contemporary Korean society

di is a uniquely sensitive person living in quiet, romantic bliss with their partner, dd. But when dd suddenly dies in a bus crash, di is catapulted into a melancholy, aimless existence. As di struggles with their personal grief, the country around them grapples with a catastrophic event and its political aftermath: the death of 304 ferry passengers, including 250 high-school students, in the sinking of MV Sewol. Meanwhile, an inquisitive writer whose small world encompasses her same-sex partner, her sister, and her nephew researches a book she may never write. Gradually, the texts she reads--ranging from Nietzsche to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry to Murasaki Shikibu--help her build a theoretical framework solid enough to harbor the lives of other overlooked people like herself: queer families, impoverished gig workers, the disabled, and the elderly. As residents across the country come together to protest the government's handling of the Sewol ferry disaster, and to impeach the right-wing president in office, the writer wonders: Is true change possible?

Just as di and dd form a corroborating couplet, dd's Umbrella is elegantly comprised of twin novellas that bear witness to the lives of those whom mainstream society would not otherwise care to miss. dd's Umbrella depicts the little-known underside of a society that can be viciously superficial, complicating the shiny, ultra-modern face that South Korea presents to the world. A delicate stylist and a conceptual artist with an unflinching social gaze, Hwang Jungeun's spare prose is illuminated by arresting imagery, transformative anger, and moments of great lyricism, crafting characters of perfectly calibrated emotional restraint. dd's Umbrella marks a deeply moving and landmark contribution to contemporary working-class literature.

About the Author

Born in 1976, Hwang Jungeun is a leading voice in contemporary Korean literature. She has won many of Korean's most prestigious awards, including the Daesan Literary Award, Korean Booksellers' Award, and the Shin Dongyup Prize for Literature. Her novel One Hundred Shadows, described by Han Kang as 'unforgettable, ' along with Years and Years, was published in the US in 2024.

e. yaewon 이예원 translates from and into Korean. She has translated many prominent Korean authors into English, including 2024 Nobel laureate Han Kang, Hwang Jungeun, and Jessica Au.


Critical Reviews

'There is an unforgettable, curious beauty to be found [in One Hundred Shadows]."--Han Kang, 2024 Nobel Laureate for Literature

"Hwang Jungeun's One Hundred Shadows is too odd to be this tender, and too sharply materialist to be this mystical, and too lyrical to be this gritty... The novel's symbols are as compelling as they are opaque, and it sucked me up and spat me out a different person."--Literary Hub

'dd's Umbrella presents the uncertainty of life and the ever-presence of grief and discrimination to ultimately communicate the importance of showing up for others, to offer them space under an umbrella when it's raining.' - Asian Review of Books

'A profound, lyrical incantation . . . What could be a fairly depressing story [I'll Go On] is raised to a thing of crystalline incandescence because of the sensitivity and humanity with which both author and translator craft this work'--Translating Women

'I'll Go On tenderly and poetically examines the bonds of sisterhood and family--the one we're born with and the one we choose--exploring both the damage love can do and its capacity for healing. It's at once sad and hopeful, quiet and yet full to the brim of an intense and beautiful energy.'--Sophie Mackintosh, author of The Water Cure

'The South Korean's first novel -- and her first to be translated into English -- is mesmerizing and surreal.'-- Vulture, '15 Must-Read Translated Books From the Past 5 Years'

"I've never read anything quite like One Hundred Shadows... experimental fiction at its finest."--April Magazine

"Affecting... It's rare for a story to be so dense in social meaning yet so lightly composed."--The Nation

"Haunting... subtle but potent... a delicately-structured critique of capitalism."--3: AM Magazine


Publishing Information

Publisher: Tilted Axis Press
Pub date: 2025-04-15
Length: 256 pages

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