From the internationally bestselling author of The Vegetarian a rare and astonishing (The
Observer) portrait of political unrest and the universal struggle for justice.Compulsively
readable universally relevant and deeply resonant . . . in equal parts beautiful and urgent.
The New York Times Book ReviewShortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award One of
the Best Books of the Year: The Atlantic San Francisco Chronicle NPR HuffPost Medium
Library JournalAmid a violent student uprising in South Korea a young boy named Dong-ho is
shockingly killed.The story of this tragic episode unfolds in a sequence of interconnected
chapters as the victims and the bereaved encounter suppression denial and the echoing agony
of the massacre. From Dong-ho s best friend who meets his own fateful end to an editor
struggling against censorship to a prisoner and a factory worker each suffering from
traumatic memories and to Dong-ho's own grief-stricken mother and through their collective
heartbreak and acts of hope is the tale of a brutalized people in search of a voice.An
award-winning controversial bestseller Human Acts is a timeless pointillist portrait of an
historic event with reverberations still being felt today by turns tracing the harsh reality
of oppression and the resounding extraordinary poetry of humanity.
