dd's Umbrella by Hwang Jungeun, Emily Yae Won (Translator)

Han Kang meets Maggie Nelson in these devastating twin novellas offering a rare depiction of the nonbinary experience in contemporary Korean society

di is a uniquely sensitive person living in quiet, romantic bliss with their partner, dd. But when dd suddenly dies in a bus crash, di is catapulted into a melancholy, aimless existence. As di struggles with their personal grief, the country around them grapples with a catastrophic event and its political the death of 304 ferry passengers, including 250 high-school students, in the sinking of MV Sewol . Meanwhile, an inquisitive writer whose small world encompasses her same-sex partner, her sister, and her nephew researches a book she may never write. Gradually, the texts she reads—ranging from Nietzsche to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry to Murasaki Shikibu—help her build a theoretical framework solid enough to harbor the lives of other overlooked people like queer families, impoverished gig workers, the disabled, and the elderly. As residents across the country come together to protest the government’s handling of the Sewol ferry disaster, and to impeach the right-wing president in office, the writer Is true change possible?

Just as di and dd form a corroborating couplet, dd’s Umbrella is elegantly comprised of twin novellas that bear witness to the lives of those whom mainstream society would not otherwise care to miss. dd’s Umbrella depicts the little-known underside of a society that can be viciously superficial, complicating the shiny, ultra-modern face that South Korea presents to the world. A delicate stylist and a conceptual artist with an unflinching social gaze, Hwang Jungeun’s spare prose is illuminated by arresting imagery, transformative anger, and moments of great lyricism, crafting characters of perfectly calibrated emotional restraint. dd’s Umbrella marks a deeply moving and landmark contribution to contemporary working-class literature.