Zima u Sokchu
A subtle and atmospheric novel about a young French-Korean woman who works in a guesthouse in winter Sokcho, near the border with North Korea. An encounter with a French comic book artist raises questions of identity, belonging, and unspoken closeness.
Winter in Sokcho (2016) is the debut novel by Swiss-Korean writer Élise Shua Dusapin. The story takes place in winter Sokcho, a tourist town on the east coast of South Korea, right next to the demilitarized zone. The young, unnamed narrator, a French-Korean woman who has never been to France, works in a half-empty guesthouse. Her life is marked by a sense of imbalance – her mother is obsessed with plastic surgery, her boyfriend is preparing to go to Seoul, and she herself floats between two identities, not fully belonging to either.
With the arrival of Yan Kerrand, a middle-aged French comic artist looking for inspiration to complete his series, a quiet tension enters her life. Their encounters – walks, conversations over sushi and squid, drives to the border – develop into a strange, fragile relationship full of unspoken emotions, attraction, and alienation.
Dusapin writes minimalistically, precisely, and poetically. The novel exudes the cold of a Korean winter, the rawness of the sea, and the melancholy of the border. The book is a subtle study of identity, loneliness, the body, and cultural fragmentation. It is short but deeply moving – a real literary treat for lovers of atmosphere and introspective prose.
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