I Said Goodbye / Korean Novel, Kim Ae-Ran

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※ Release date : 2025-06-20

[Title]
I Said Goodbye / Korean Novel, Kim Ae-Ran

[Detail]
320p, 133*200mm, 416g, ISBN : 9791141602376

[Information]
Eight years after "Summer Outside," novelist Kim Ae-ran has returned with a new collection of short stories. Hailed as "a novel that sharply demonstrates her unique ability to capture the particles of emotion floating through social space and give them lucid expression," "I Said Hello" includes seven short stories, including "Home Party," which won the 2022 Kim Seung-ok Literary Award for Excellence, and "Good Neighbor," which won the 2022 Oh Young-soo Literary Award. While Kim Ae-ran continues to demonstrate her unique ability to layer worlds with powerful emotional appeal and dilemmatic questions, she presents a slightly more chilled and ruthless approach than before.

The protagonist of this collection could be said to be "space." As the novel states, "Many events in plays begin with 'invitations,' 'visits,' 'intrusions,' and 'escapes'" ("Home Party," p. 42), this collection unfolds as characters visit someone else's space. It can be an elegant and stable space that hints at the owner's aesthetic sense and leisure ("Home Party"), or a detached house overseas that, thanks to low prices and affordable lodging, allows for the "first-ever luxury" of a month-long trip ("Little House in the Forest"). Or it can be a carefully maintained and used rental that now needs to be prepared for a new owner ("Good Neighbor"), or a bookstore opened after quitting her job and pouring all her savings into it ("Lemon Cake").

The reason space is so crucial in "I Said Goodbye" is because it serves not simply as a backdrop for the story, but as the very lives of the characters. For Kim Ae-ran, who has demonstrated exceptional insight into the meaning of a "room" in our society, a space can be a place that gauges someone's economic and social standing, a holistic and complex place that encapsulates a person's history. Therefore, the conflicts surrounding space in this collection can be seen as clashes between the standards of living. Entering someone else's space is, in other words, an event that breaks out of the boundaries of the life I have lived.

[Genre]
Novels/Poetry/Drama > Korean Novels > Korean Novels Since the 2000s

[CONTENTS]
Home Party 007
Little House in the Forest 045
Good Neighbor 097
Alien Sense 143
Lemon Cake 189
I Said Goodbye 217
Like Raindrops 257

Commentary | Shin Hyeong-cheol (Literary Critic)
Your Neighbor, Like Your Money 295

Author's Note 315

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