Description

"There is a novel I want to write forever." A grand epic of mourning for all those who have faded away beyond history and memory. "Black Flower" is a novel based on the true stories of Koreans who left for Mexico in 1905, when the Korean Empire was "slowly disappearing like an ink drop in water," filled with hopes for good jobs and a better future. Author Kim Young-ha traveled to Mexico and Guatemala to gather materials and conduct field research for this novel, beginning his writing while staying there. At first glance, this novel may seem like a sentimental account of national suffering, but it takes the reader in an entirely different direction from the start. Following the bold and lively writing style of the author, which crosses continents and oceans, readers are soon drawn into a world where everything violently collides and collapses. Feudalism and modernity clash, indigenous beliefs and foreign religions conflict, social classes and hierarchies break down, and the relationship between the state and the individual disintegrates, prompting us to deeply reflect on the absolute conditions of human fate. Kim Young-ha's portrayal of a world where people who have lost everything struggle for survival and dignity is objective, cold, and filled with irony. At times, it is even humorous. The tone is calm, but the stories are as hot as a furnace. The concise and straightforward writing style, along with a mosaic structure that follows various characters without a clear central figure, reveals that the aim of this novel is not the sentimental presentation of national suffering, but rather to expose the fate of human existence that must ultimately succumb to misfortune. Here, the literary ambition of the young author Kim Young-ha, who sought to innovate the clichés of novel writing, becomes clear. In an interview, the author spoke about the title "Black Flower": "A black flower is a flower that does not exist in the world. Black is the only color that can exist only when all colors are mixed, and it can be seen as something that transcends age, class, culture, and race. In that sense, I believe the flower carries a utopian meaning." "Black Flower" is likely the author's 'funeral flower' for all humans who long for an unreachable utopia but ultimately fade away, forgotten by everyone.