Kyung-Sook Shin

Chi-Young Kim

An American release of an award-winning South Korean best-seller follows the efforts of a family to find the mother who went missing from Seoul Station and their sobering realizations when they recall memories that suggest she may not have been happy. Reprint.

A Novel

Please Look After Mom

엄마를 부탁해

doxi 

“To you, Mom was always Mom. It never occurred to you that she had once taken her first step, or had once been three or twelve or twenty years old. Mom was Mom. She was born as Mom. Until you saw her running to your uncle like that, it hadn’t dawned on you that she was a human being who harbored the exact same feeling you had for your own brothers, and this realization led to the awareness that she, too, had had a childhood. From then on, you sometimes thought of Mom as a child, as a girl, as a young woman, as a newlywed, as a mother who had just given birth to you.”

“I will let go of you now. You were my secret. You were in my life, someone whose presence would never be guessed by anyone who knew me. Even though nobody knew that you were in my life, you were the person who brought a raft at every rapid current and helped me cross that water safely. I was happy that you were there. I came to tell you that I was able to travel through my life because I could come to you when I was anxious, not when I was happy.”

Lindy

Even now, when Mom's missing. When you call out "Mom," you want to believe that she's healthy. That Mom is strong. That Mom isn't fazed by anything. That Mom is the person you want to call whenever you despair about something in this city. 

It's your life, and you're my daughter, my daughter with the amazing ability to concentrate when you solve problems. Of course you would find a solution for your situation. 

Even though nobody knew that you were in my life, you were the person who brought a raft at every rapid current and helped me cross that water safely. 

Please Look After Mom quotes

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