Untold Night and Day

Product Information

There are no performances next week,’ Ayami said. ‘Today’s was the last one; the audio theatre will be closed permanently from tomorrow.’ The radio … the switch is broken, you see. So it turns itself on, and then turns itself off again.’ I don’t know – I had a meeting after the event, and left his book there. I only realised after I got here.’ There was a sigh as he said this, but seemingly not over the book. ‘When I returned after the meeting, the terminally unconvincing seemed to have left long ago: the lecture hall was deserted. But I stood in front of the door for a long time. I couldn’t bring myself to leave.’ Bae Suah was born in Seoul in 1965. She studied chemistry at university and wrote her first short story as a way of practising her typing on a new word program. Since 1993 she has published fourteen story collections and six novels. Untold Night and Day is her first book to be published in the UK.

Ayami, you misunderstand me! There could be a dangerous misunderstanding here. None of this has anything to do with you. You’re not a poet. There’s no need to identify with them. You’re still young, healthy and beautiful. The future belongs to you; why make such a frightful substitution?’And I DO blame this book, which I can't make any sense of. I can't tell what's real or what's not. I can't understand how what seems imagined or historical in one scene is real in another. I don't understand how the characters seem to switch places and identities and also move between real and imagined (they also seem lost and confused.) I don't understand what is meant to be a deep connection to The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat, a short novel of similar tone I read earlier this year and also didn't understand.

Oh yes, it’s important. That’s self-evident. As for how important, everyone has to judge for themselves.’ The fact that the women are using a German translation of the great Persian novel The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat as a text for their lessons may provide a clue to Bae Suah’s purpose in this work. The Blind Owl, first published in 1937, is about a craftsman who, in an opium-induced haze, reflects on the meaning of death and the re-occurring patterns of life. The paintings he creates on pen cases unintentionally reflect the scene outside his window and the painting on an urn he acquires from a junk dealer. In the end, the cycle of life and death is relentless and reality is called into question. In fact, it is never clear where reality ends and the painter’s dream begins. title story translated as Highway with Green Apples by Sora Kim-Russell: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... Do it before it’s too late, it’ll be a help. I’m serious. You’re a talented young actress and you’ve done great work at the theatre, so if a new position comes up with the foundation’s cultural arts team there’ll definitely be an opportunity for you.’ Kim, is it OK if I sit with you?’ When he told her to go ahead, she said, ‘Just buy me a Coke, I won’t bother you for long.’ Maria’s childish voice stirring some sympathy in him, Buha bought her a Coke as she requested.

Even if she had, she’d still answer the phone. She told me to call again tonight, and that she would tell me in more detail about the poet I’m meeting at the airport. Apparently they met entirely by chance, sitting next to each other on a train in Europe.’ Anyhow,’ the German-language teacher said, returning to her original reason for calling, ‘I guessed you would still be at work, and I have a favour to ask.’ Bae Suah likes to challenge readers used to more conventional plot lines and character development. In “Untold Night and Day” identities are blurred, chronology is warped, time and space are stretched and exist in parallel to others. It wasn’t as if he thought of her constantly. After a few years had passed, she came less frequently to his mind or to his dreams, and then a whole year might go by without him picturing her face. Buha remembered the poet woman with the greatest intensity whenever someone asked what he dreamed of being, and as he grew older such occasions grew fewer and further between, one could almost say ending completely.