Description
Description
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Public Library, Polygon, Kirkus Reviews
In 1919, far-flung patriots establish the Korean Provisional Government to protest the Japanese occupation of their country. This government-in-exile proves mostly symbolic, though, and after Japan's defeat in World War II, the KPG dissolves and civil war erupts, resulting in the tragic North-South split that remains today. But what if the KPG still existed--now working toward a unified Korea, secretly pulling levers to further its aims? Same Bed Different Dreams weaves together three distinct narrative voices with an archive of mysterious images, and twists reality like a kaleidoscope. Korean history, American pop culture, and our tech-fraught lives come together in this extraordinary and unforgettable novel. Soon Sheen, a former writer now employed by the tech behemoth GLOAT, comes into possession of an unfinished book seemingly authored by the KPG. The manuscript is a riveting revisionist history, connecting famous names and obscure bit players to the KPG's grand project--everyone from Syngman Rhee and architect-poet Yi Sang to Jack London and Marilyn Monroe. M*A*S*H is in here, too, as are the Moonies and a history of violence extending from the assassination of President McKinley to the Reagan-era downing of a passenger plane that puts the world on the brink of war. From the acclaimed author of Personal Days, Same Bed Different Dreams is a raucously funny feat of imagination and a thrilling meld of history and fiction that pulls readers into another dimension--one in which utopia is possible.
About the Author
About the Author
Critical Reviews
Critical Reviews
"I can't stop reading, thinking, and dreaming about this feverish, mind-altering marvel of a book."--Hua Hsu, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Stay True
"Your view of twentieth-century history will be enlarged and altered by Ed Park's mysterious, panoramic novel. It seems to draw on Bolaño, Pynchon, and DeWitt for its radical structure, yet remains grounded in a droll, sweet voice we've wished to hear again since Personal Days. This is a Gravity's Rainbow for another war, an unfinished war. Having been enlisted in the Korean Provisional Government, I now await my instructions."--Jonathan Lethem, author of The Fortress of Solitude
"A book of dizzying scope and erudition . . . very funny, intimate, and playful and interested in basic questions of existence, beginning with: Why are we here and what gives us meaning?"--Dave Eggers, author of The Circle
"A novel to get lost in and a feat of imagination . . . I read it with awe for its construction and for the sheer pleasure of its language."--Charles Yu, National Book Award-winning author of Interior Chinatown
"Totally astounding . . . Same Bed Different Dreams emits a prismatic intelligence operating on multiple frequencies. I didn't know I'd been waiting for a book like this until I encountered it."--Ling Ma, author of Severance
"Same Bed Different Dreams is a kaleidoscope of Koreamericana; a crowd of cracked voices; a gorgeous, hilarious, provisional dream; a wonder."--Namwali Serpell, author of The Furrows
"No blurb could adequately praise or even sum up this novel. All I know is that Same Bed Different Dreams belongs in the company of a rare few dark and comic masterpieces of invention. It disarmed me with sheer delight."--Elizabeth McKenzie, author of The Portable Veblen
"Park blurs fact and fiction so seamlessly that search results will undoubtedly surprise if not shock, albeit not without reverential delight."--Booklist, starred review
"Park returns fifteen years after Personal Days with an ingenious postmodern epic of colonial and postcolonial Korea framed in a satire of America's publishing and tech industries . . . This tribute to the fractured peninsula's citizens, diaspora, and allies is one for the ages."--Publishers Weekly, starred review
Publishing Information
Publishing Information
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