This collection of eight stories-cynical and sympathetic by turns-represents the author's attempt to document and understand the conflicts, resentments, hatreds, and anxieties of contemporary family life. The title story depicts a mother's busy day playing numerous roles-ashamed, fearless, or humble-depending on which member of her family she's tending to. In "The Privacy of My Father," a daughter tracks her father to Hong Kong in order to spy on what she thinks is an illicit affair. All in all, says Seo Hajin, family means deception-but these masks aren't so easily removed.

About the Author

Seo Hajin was born in 1961 in Youngcheon, North Kyungsang Province. She studied Korean literature at Kyunghee University in Seoul, Korea, and is currently a assistant professor of Korean Literature at the same school.

Ally Hwang is a translator of Korean literature. She has published a short story translation of Seo Hajin, two volumes in the Korean Classic Stories series, and "Bunnyeo" and "Harbin" by Yi Hyo-seok in the E-Book 20th Century Korean Literature.

Amy C. Smith is an Associate Professor of English at Lamar University (TSUS). With Ally Hwang she has translated two collections of Seo Hajin's short stories. She is currently completing a book, to be published with Northwestern University Press, called Virginia Woolf's Politics of Myth.

Book Information
ISBN 9781628971187
Author Hajin Seo
Format Paperback
Page Count 350
Imprint Dalkey Archive Press
Publisher Dalkey Archive Press