{"product_id":"안녕이라-그랬어","title":"I said hello.","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"info_text fw_bold\"\u003e“I will assert without reservation that Kim Ae-ran has long been a sociologist,\u003cbr\u003eand now more than ever.”\u003cbr\u003e_Shin Hyeong-cheol (Literary Critic)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIncludes “Good Neighbor,” winner of the 2022 Oh Young-soo Literary Award,\u003cbr\u003eand “Home Party,” winner of the 2022 Kim Seung-ok Literary Award of Excellence.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"info_text\"\u003eAfter eight years since 『The Outside Is Summer』 (Munhakdongne, 2017), novelist Kim Ae-ran returns with a new collection of short stories. 『I Said Goodbye』 features a total of seven short stories, including “Home Party,” which won the 2022 Kim Seung-ok Literary Award of Excellence with praise for its “sharp demonstration of a unique ability to capture emotional particles floating in social spaces and give them clear expression,” and “Good Neighbor,” winner of the 2022 Oh Young-soo Literary Award. While still showcasing her characteristic ability to construct a world with powerful emotional appeal and dilemmas through multiple layers, this collection reveals a slightly cooler and more dispassionate Kim Ae-ran. \u003cbr\u003eThe protagonist of this collection can be said to be ‘space.’ As expressed in the story “many dramatic events began with ‘invitation’ and ‘visit,’ ‘intrusion’ and ‘escape’” (“Home Party,” p. 42), the narratives in this book unfold as characters visit someone else’s space. This might be an elegant and stable space that hints at the homeowner’s aesthetic sense and affluence (“Home Party”), or a single-family home abroad that allows for a month-long trip, a “luxury enjoyed for the first time in life,” thanks to cheap prices and low living costs (“A Small House in the Forest”). Or it could be a jeonse house that has been carefully tended to and used but now needs to be prepared for new tenants (“Good Neighbor”), or a bookstore opened with all the money saved after quitting a job (“Lemon Cake”). The reason space is important in 『I Said Goodbye』 is that it doesn’t merely function as a backdrop for the story, but is synonymous with the characters’ lives themselves. For Kim Ae-ran, who has described with exceptional insight the meaning of “a single room” in our society, certain spaces are not only indicators of someone’s economic and social standing, but also comprehensive and complex places that fully embody a person’s history. Therefore, the conflicts surrounding space in this collection can be seen as clashes between different standards of life. Entering another person’s space is, in other words, an event that transcends the boundaries of a life lived as oneself. \u003cbr\u003eIn “Home Party,” Kim Ae-ran asks, “How difficult is it for one person to stand in another person’s shoes?” (p. 24). Will visiting another’s space be a path to expanding understanding of others, or a path of intrusion that crushes each other’s standards? In a reality where it is harder than ever to move beyond the boundaries of ‘me’ to ‘us,’ where the scenery before us and the people we relate to are increasingly quantifiable by money, Kim Ae-ran’s question feels all the more urgent. And that question can be rephrased: When a shared experience of resignation and disappointment leads to a new starting line, what has truly changed from before, and what has been preserved? Or, what must change and what must be preserved? That is perhaps Kim Ae-ran’s greeting, one that is needed now more than ever, when the act of wishing someone peace and well-being has become so profoundly earnest.\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"서점","offers":[{"title":"I said hello.","offer_id":45657413419242,"sku":null,"price":20.9,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0320\/3632\/3464\/files\/Thumbnail_website_18_671157ea-c7a8-471e-994b-0837219ce0d6.jpg?v=1759902447","url":"https:\/\/kmall09.com.au\/en\/products\/%ec%95%88%eb%85%95%ec%9d%b4%eb%9d%bc-%ea%b7%b8%eb%9e%ac%ec%96%b4","provider":"KMALL09","version":"1.0","type":"link"}