Human Acts

The unnamed Writer, a stand-in for Kang herself, remembers that just before the Gwangju Uprising, she and her family moved to the outskirts of Seoul. One night, she overhears her father talking on the phone about a boy, one of his former students, whose family moved into their hanok (a traditional Korean house) after they moved. The hushed way Kang’s parents talk about the boy stirs her childlike curiosity. That summer, two men come and search their new house, and Kang’s paternal uncle warns Kang’s father that he thinks their line may be tapped. She remembers more snatches of conversation during the Thanksgiving festival that autumn, of people tortured and killed.

Years later, Kang’s father brings home a photograph book of the Gwangju Uprising, published and sold in secret. Although he keeps it out of the reach of his children, while the adults are watching the news, young Kang sneaks the book out and looks at the images. Upon seeing the photograph of the woman with the bayonet slash across her face, something inside of her is broken.

As an adult, Kang returns to Gwangju to do research for Human Acts. She has become preoccupied with the question of why she lived while

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