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Title details for Greek Lessons by Han Kang - Available

Greek Lessons

A Novel

by Han Kang
Deborah Smith
Audiobook
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FROM HAN KANG, WINNER OF THE 2024 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE
 
“[Han Kang’s] intense poetic prose . . . exposes the fragility of human life.”—The Nobel Committee for Literature, in the citation for the Nobel Prize
 
NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • A dazzling novel about the saving grace of language and human connection, from the “visionary” (New York Times Book Review) author of the International Booker Prize winner The Vegetarian
“Both a disquieting journey about the loss of sense and a return to the sensorium of touch and intimacy, Greek Lessons soars with sensuous and revelatory insight.”—Cathy Park Hong, author of Minor Feelings
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, Time, Chicago Public Library, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal

"Now and then, language would thrust its way into her sleep like a skewer through meat, startling her awake several times a night."
In a classroom in Seoul, a young woman watches her Greek language teacher at the blackboard. She tries to speak but has lost her voice. Her teacher finds himself drawn to the silent woman, for day by day he is losing his sight. 
Soon the two discover a deeper pain binds them together. For her, in the space of just a few months, she has lost both her mother and the custody battle for her nine-year-old son. For him, it's the pain of growing up between Korea and Germany, being torn between two cultures and languages, and the fear of losing his independence.
Greek Lessons tells the story of two ordinary people brought together at a moment of private anguish—the fading light of a man losing his vision meeting the silence of a woman who has lost her language. Yet these are the very things that draw them to each other. Slowly the two discover a profound sense of unity—their voices intersecting with startling beauty, as they move from darkness to light, from silence to breath and expression.
Greek Lessons is the story of the unlikely bond between this pair and a tender love letter to human intimacy and connection—a novel to awaken the senses, one that vividly conjures the essence of what it means to be alive.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    April 18, 2023

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593666234
      • File size: 132589 KB
      • Duration: 04:36:13

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from February 13, 2023
      Booker winner Kang (The Vegetarian) explores the borders of the senses in this delicate love story. An unnamed Korean woman living in Seoul stops speaking after her mother dies and she loses custody of her eight-year-old son. An interest in language, though, continues to tug at her, and she enrolls in a Greek class. There, she begins writing poetry that catches the eye of her instructor who, unbeknownst to anyone else, is slowly losing his sight. Split between his dual homelands of Korea and Germany, the instructor picks up on the student’s search for a language beyond what can be expressed or seen with the naked eye, something the woman gestures at in her poetry: “a language as cold and hard as a pillar of ice.” In prose that merges memory, story, and poetry, Kang tracks how the two find in one another what is missing from the sensual world. This brilliant, shimmering work is never at a loss for words even when exploring the mind of a woman who won’t speak, and its pursuit of an authentic, exquisite new form is profound. Once again, Kang demonstrates great visionary power.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Narrators Earl Kim and Greta Jung humanize Han Kang's moving story about two people who are suffering physical and mental anguish. After an unnamed Korean woman experiences several traumatic life blows, her language disappears. She enrolls in a Greek language class with an instructor who has just learned he's going blind. As the two stories alternate, Jung enters the mind of the wordless woman, conveying her deeply disturbed state through her lyrical poetry. As the teacher discovers he is attracted to the woman's poetry, Kim's deep baritone is calming and comforting. In tender communications, frequently nonverbal, each finds solace and salvation. Han's gorgeous writing allows the narrators to create two broken yet hopeful and utterly believable people listeners will care about. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      June 10, 2024

      A young woman in Seoul watches her Greek language professor with interest. Yet, she has lost her voice and cannot speak at all. Meanwhile, her professor is slowly losing his sight--every day, he is surprised he can still see, and he waits for the day when he will lose connection with the world. The two connect through their shared pain. The woman lost her nine-year-old son in a custody battle and was further shaken when her mother died a few months later. The professor, who was born in Korea but grew up in Germany, struggles to reconcile his German and Korean selves. Man Booker International Prize-winning Kang's (The Vegetarian) latest is a powerful story about the importance of memory, connection, and language. Narrators Greta Young and Earl T. Kim provide ethereal performances, giving voice to each character as they navigate their changing worlds. The characters' disconnection from the world around them is evident in the narration, which has a hazy quality that speaks to the necessity of being open to new experiences, new people, and love. VERDICT An outstanding literary novel that will please Kang's fans and appeal to new listeners.--Elyssa Everling

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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