Translated by Anton Hur 'Mesmerising dreamlike and prescient in its sharpness and
attentiveness to the dynamics between women and the male and female gaze' Sharlene Teo author
of Ponti 'Darkly beautiful VIOLETS explores the toll of abandonment and relentless
marginalisation' Frances Cha author of If I Had Your Face 'Violets lavishes attention on the
kind of person who often slips through the cracks unseen or ignored. There is a beauty and a
bravery in speaking for small lives' Rowan Hisayo Buchanan author of Harmless Like You 'Has a
way of seeing past the smooth surface of societal appearance and into the fragile obscure
psychological space that lies just beneath' Alexandra Kleenman author of Something New Under
the Sun 'An intimate portrait of isolation and unspoken desire. Darkly poetic dreamlike and
meditative' Adelle Stripe author of Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile South Korea 1970. San
is a lonely child ostracised from her community. She soon finds a friend in a girl called
Namae until one afternoon changes everything. Following a moment of intimacy in a minari field
Namae violently rejects San setting her on a troubling path. We next meet San aged twenty-two
when she happens upon a job at a flower shop in Seoul's bustling city centre. Over the course
of one hazy volatile summer San is introduced to a curious cast of characters - the mute shop
owner a brash co-worker kind farmers and aggressive customers - and fuelled by a quiet
desperation to jump-start her life she plunges headfirst into obsession with a passing
magazine photographer. Throughout it all San's moment with Namae continues to linger in the
back of her mind. A story of thwarted desire misogyny and erasure Violets reveals the high
stakes involved in one woman's desperate search for both autonomy and attachment in an
unforgiving society.
