"Bright Night" Author: [Korean] Cui Enrong Publisher: Taiwan Strait Publishing House

Introduction · · · · · ·
I have a desire to write about mothers or grandmothers, women who lived on this land long ago.

A female version of "To Live", the friendship, struggle, tears and laughter of four generations of women

220,000 readers of Korea's largest online bookstore voted for the "Book of the Year 2021"

Winner of the 29th Dashan Literature Award, the first novel by talented writer Choi Eun-young!

Women are no longer mere characters for sympathy and pity, nor are they supporting roles that embellish men's magnificent lives.

They are themselves, living like grass, supporting each other, and doing their best to fight against the absurd times.

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After divorcing my husband, I, 31, came to Xiling, a small seaside town, by myself. There I ran into my grandmother whom I hadn’t seen for many years. After the awkward silence, our lonely hearts gradually drew closer, and my grandmother and I became friends who shared our hearts with each other. In the old photo albums in my grandmother’s old house, I found a woman who looked very similar to me, snuggling up to my grandmother when she was a girl.

Vivid faces gradually appeared before me from black and white photos, from touching letters, and from distant memories, passing through an era when women's lives were as drifting as duckweed and their lives were worthless like grass.

The story that came to me through my great-grandmother, grandmother and mother,

Their lives replayed before my eyes.

Can I reach them now?

Just as countless past selves make up the present me,

Can the present me also see the countless past me’s?