South Korean writer Shin Kyung-sook is experiencing a watershed year in her career. The 49-year-old rocketed to international fame in March, when she became the first woman to win the Man Asian Literary Prize for her novel, Please Look After Mother.
Prior to receiving the award, her book was already a hit in South Korea, where it has sold more than two million copies to date. The American paperback edition has since been released, and she has visited the US to do readings and book signings.
Please Look After Mother, a novel about a family's search for their missing mother, is an examination of life in contemporary Korea, as well as an elegy for the past. It is the first of Shin's books to be translated into English.
She has written seven other novels and seven story collections. The inspiration for Please Look After Mother came decades earlier, before she had published a single book. 'When I was 16, I moved from the countryside to Seoul for high school,' she says through a translator.
'I took a night train with my mother to go to school. When I was looking at my mother's face I could see how hard her life was. And so I thought, when I go to the big city, and become a successful writer, at some point I would like to write the most beautiful piece of writing dedicated to my mother.'
Seven years later, she became a writer. 'But it took me another 27 years to write this book,' she says. 'It started as a book for my mother. But during those 27 years there were a lot of changes, for myself, and [on a wider scale] due to modernisation. In the process of modernisation, we have lost a lot of things. So the word 'mother' represents all the things that have been lost to all of us.'
Please Look After Mother is a beautiful piece of writing. The language, characters and plot elicit an emotional response, but the book rises above sentimentality. Shin's mother was pleased with the novel. 'She told me, 'Thank you. I'm very proud of you and you did a very good job'.' A smile blooms across her face as she recounts this moment. Shin has an air of calm about her and exudes a quiet confidence. When she speaks, she is sure of her words, and there is kindness in her voice.
