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.