Greek Lessons
Buy Now
By using these links, you support READO. We receive an affiliate commission without any additional costs to you.
Description
A powerful novel of the saving grace of language and human connection, from the Nobel Prize-winning author of The Vegetarian.
'Breathtaking . . . She is simply my favourite living writer to read, and think with, and see the world with' Max Porter
In a classroom in Seoul, a young woman watches her Greek language teacher at the blackboard. She tries to speak but has lost her voice. Her teacher finds himself drawn to the silent woman, for day by day he is losing his sight.
Soon they discover a deeper pain binds them. For her, in the space of just a few months, she has lost both her mother and the custody battle for her nine-year-old son. For him, it's the pain of growing up between Korea and Germany, being torn between two cultures and languages.
Greek Lessons is a tender love letter to human connection, a novel to awaken the senses, vividly conjuring the essence of what it means to be alive.
Translated by Deborah Smith and e. yaewon.
Shortlisted for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation 2024
'Another stunning gem: quiet, sharply faceted, and devastating' Kirkus
'Han Kang is a writer like no other. In a few lines, she seems to traverse the entirety of human experience' Katie Kitamura
Book Information
Characteristics
1 reviews
Mood
Protagonist(s)
Pace
Writing Style
Posts
Told in Beautiful Prose
In a classroom in Seoul, two nameless protagonists meet. She, unable to speak, shapes words silently with her lips. He, caught between Korea and Germany, between his own culture and a foreign one - struggles as his eyesight slowly fades. During their Greek lessons, something delicate begins to grow between them. Told in shifting perspectives, their thoughts and emotions overlap: reflections on loss, past love, and the struggle to exist in a world where vital senses are missing from birth or slip away over time. With quiet, poetic language, Han Kang draws us into the inner lives of these two characters and the fragile love that slowly takes shape. This is such a beautiful, short novel, full of introspection, tender and deeply moving. I also really enjoyed the audiobook, the narration was wonderful.
This ist just beautiful and reading it felt like one big wave of a feeling. It felt sad and then really not sad at the same time, then very weird but also not weird at all, then hopeful but somehow also very quiet and sober. Many times it was so so vague and abstract but then also extremely specific. Then sensitive and intimate but sometimes very harsh. I felt like reading a big, dense and meaningful story and at the same time it’s really only a very small story about two little lives. In the end, what I do know is that I admire this book, it just tingled a spot in my brain I cannot really name. The mixture of prose and poetry is amazing. And no matter what, Han Kang must have experienced things (or her imagination is just next level) and this is what makes this story feel so meaningful and simply different.
Characteristics
1 reviews
Mood
Protagonist(s)
Pace
Writing Style
Description
A powerful novel of the saving grace of language and human connection, from the Nobel Prize-winning author of The Vegetarian.
'Breathtaking . . . She is simply my favourite living writer to read, and think with, and see the world with' Max Porter
In a classroom in Seoul, a young woman watches her Greek language teacher at the blackboard. She tries to speak but has lost her voice. Her teacher finds himself drawn to the silent woman, for day by day he is losing his sight.
Soon they discover a deeper pain binds them. For her, in the space of just a few months, she has lost both her mother and the custody battle for her nine-year-old son. For him, it's the pain of growing up between Korea and Germany, being torn between two cultures and languages.
Greek Lessons is a tender love letter to human connection, a novel to awaken the senses, vividly conjuring the essence of what it means to be alive.
Translated by Deborah Smith and e. yaewon.
Shortlisted for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation 2024
'Another stunning gem: quiet, sharply faceted, and devastating' Kirkus
'Han Kang is a writer like no other. In a few lines, she seems to traverse the entirety of human experience' Katie Kitamura
Book Information
Posts
Told in Beautiful Prose
In a classroom in Seoul, two nameless protagonists meet. She, unable to speak, shapes words silently with her lips. He, caught between Korea and Germany, between his own culture and a foreign one - struggles as his eyesight slowly fades. During their Greek lessons, something delicate begins to grow between them. Told in shifting perspectives, their thoughts and emotions overlap: reflections on loss, past love, and the struggle to exist in a world where vital senses are missing from birth or slip away over time. With quiet, poetic language, Han Kang draws us into the inner lives of these two characters and the fragile love that slowly takes shape. This is such a beautiful, short novel, full of introspection, tender and deeply moving. I also really enjoyed the audiobook, the narration was wonderful.
This ist just beautiful and reading it felt like one big wave of a feeling. It felt sad and then really not sad at the same time, then very weird but also not weird at all, then hopeful but somehow also very quiet and sober. Many times it was so so vague and abstract but then also extremely specific. Then sensitive and intimate but sometimes very harsh. I felt like reading a big, dense and meaningful story and at the same time it’s really only a very small story about two little lives. In the end, what I do know is that I admire this book, it just tingled a spot in my brain I cannot really name. The mixture of prose and poetry is amazing. And no matter what, Han Kang must have experienced things (or her imagination is just next level) and this is what makes this story feel so meaningful and simply different.