“At Dusk provides the reader with an excellent picture of Seoul now and several decades ago, with a mournful, nostalgic feel pervading the novel … Hwang is a masterful storyteller, and the final third of the book skilfully brings the disparate stories together, with a clever, and surprising, twist to round matters.”
Tony Malone, Tony’s Reading List
“At Dusk is a small but powerful novel from one of South Korea’s most esteemed novelists … The questions At Dusk raises are timeless, and perfect for more serious book-group discussions.”
Annie Condon, Readings
“[A] beautifully observed tale … another superb novel from a writer at the top of his craft.”
Pile by the Bed
“What elevates this work, is how the gritty psychological exploration of contemporary Korean society is packaged within a taut and compelling mystery regarding how the two disparate narratives might be connected. At Dusk is another short but impactful novel from Hwang Sok-yong.”
Booklover Book Reviews
“At Dusk is a book steeped in melancholy—for times gone by, for relationships lost or abandoned, for a world that no longer exists. Hwang delves deeply into the psyche of his characters and in doing so tells universal stories of love, ambition and regret … another superb novel from a writer at the top of his craft.”
psnews.com.au
“It’s a regretful, bittersweet exploration of modernisation, which picks away at the country’s past and present, slowly becoming a moving reflection of what we gain and lose as individuals and a society in the name of progress … [Hwang’s] writing is laced with the hard-won wisdom of a man with plenty left to say.”
Ben East, The Observer
“Quietly probing.”
The Irish Times
“The book is on the verge of something, and despite the gentle care in Hwang’s storytelling, there is an urgency to his words.”
The Skinny
“Thoughtful and affecting.”
Jane Graham, The Big Issue
“Hwang is a master storyteller … his writing is sparse and evocative.”
Asymptote Journal
“At Dusk has Hwang’s customary blend of fragility and brutality, of tenderness and raw pain … At Dusk is a journey through memory and through the necessary potential and duty of architecture; through human spaces and urban topographies of existence and non-being. For Korea, this is a novel that should mark a turning point in its sense of identity; for non-Korean readers, it is a blueprint of the critical elenchus we need to undertake before it is tragically far too late for all our local traditions, cultures and individual lives.”
Mika Provata–Carline, Bookanista
“[A] solid portrait of changing times and society.”
M.A. Orthofer, The Complete Review
“Hwang Sok-yong’s At Dusk is a perfect slice of Koreana; a touching, somewhat depressive narrative full of nostalgia that shows the underbelly of a nation through the life of characters inhabiting society's bottom rung.”
Gabino Iglesias, NPR
“These characters illustrate South Korea’s sharp economic divides and explore what is required to improve one’s lot in life—and whether it’s even possible for more than a very few. It captures so much in under 200 pages: economic inequality; gender, class, and educational divides; and the complex relationships individuals and the culture at large have with their own history.”
Rebecca Hussey, Bookriot
“The melancholic artistry of his bare prose shines through in At Dusk, with the juxtaposition of the nostalgia of a bygone era and a soulless modernity … this voice is resounding in At Dusk, with its bittersweet meditation of regret.” FOUR STARS
Walter Sim, Straits Times
Praise for the author
“Hwang Sok-yong is undoubtedly the most powerful voice of the novel in Asia today.”
—Kenzaburo Oe, winner of the 1994 Nobel Prize for Literature
“Hwang Sok-yong is one of South Korea's foremost writers, a powerful voice for society's marginalised, and Sora Kim-Russell's translations never falter.”
—Deborah Smith, translator of The Vegetarian
Praise for Princess Bari (Scribe, 2019)
“Drawing on an old Korean folktale about a princess on a quest and intertwining it with modern life in China and London, Sok-yong chronicles Bari’s journey in an enchanting style that explores Korean culture, beautifully balances reality with magic, and presents an immigrant's perspective of the world.”
—Yen Magazine
“An evocative, modern-day quest from one of Korea's most renowned novelists…a story of the search for home and a timely, surreal reminder of the cost of war and the desperate measures people will take to escape.”
—BMA Magazine
Praise for Familiar Things (Scribe, 2018)
“Galvanized by Nobel Prize-winner Kenzaburo Oe’s resounding endorsement—“undoubtedly the most powerful voice in Asia today”—and master translator Sora Kim Russell’s exquisite rendition, Hwang’s latest anglophonic import is surely poised for western success.”
—Terry Hong, Booklist (starred)
“Familiar Things…serves as a powerful and potentially contentious reminder of the difficult backstory to South Korean success. As one of the country’s most prominent novelists, Hwang has never shied away from controversy…With Familiar Things, Hwang turns his attention to the underside of South Korea’s remarkable economic development, namely, the vast underclass it has created. Hwang’s riveting tale of second-class citizenship, in which the main characters are forced to pick through garbage to survive, gestures not just at the country’s past and what was lost during rapid modernization. It also serves as an implicit warning about the future of the Korean peninsula.”
—John Feffer, Boston Review
“One of South Korea’s most acclaimed authors…[In Familiar Things, Hwang] challenges us to look back and reevaluate the cost of modernisation, and see what and whom we have left behind.”
—The Guardian
“Familiar Things is a fine little novel, showing a crushing, grim reality in which the resilient human spirit and imagination makes do.”
—M.A.Orthofer, The Complete Review
“[A] vivid depiction of a city too quick to throw away both possessions and people.”
—Financial Times
“Sora Kim-Russell’s translation moves gracefully between gritty, whiffy realism and folk-tale spookiness.”
—The Economist
