Aquarium

Author Yu Rae-hyeok · Publisher Poster Shop · Published 2024-01-11 · ISBN 9791198547514

About the Book

In a beautiful summer, we can't help but be completely immersed in a story that surges like waves.

The novel "Aquarium" observes the exquisitely beautiful and poignant story of discarded loves with a lyrical style and sentences so vivid that scenes feel tangible. This instantly draws readers into the scorching summer of 2003 when the characters stole each other's hearts. By the time the damp sensation characteristic of summer can be felt on the fingertips touching the book, we find ourselves in the midst of a full-blown rainy season. Among these, the story of characters who have experienced great loss, and who are forced to use each other's existence to overcome that void, makes us painfully realize how love should be connected. In particular, this deep understanding of discarded things can also be a great courage for us to face the past we have ignored, its darker aspects. Ultimately, it can be said that the novel "Aquarium" contains a gentle power that, through the characters' process of escaping their "aquarium," allows readers to reflect on what their own "aquarium" was, what things swim and are trapped within it, and how they can move from that aquarium to the ocean.


From the Book

'If sadness always rains down on humans like rain, and one must unfold warm memories to shield against it, then I have never, in my entire life, shielded myself from the pouring rain with my own strength. My memories and heart broke too early. Or rather, the catch of the umbrella. It must have been right after my father died. It just snapped, and no matter how hard I tried to open my heart, it kept folding back weakly. The rain seeping in was always cold and damp. Sometimes it was stinging... or hot. Truly, to the point of exhaustion.'
--- p.259

'Ah, why are there so many broken and discarded umbrellas in this world? Umbrellas used once and then thrown away, or forgotten. Umbrellas mistakenly taken by others, or simply forgotten. Not to mention the worst cases, like umbrellas torn and bent by wind and rain. I felt both immense pity and, at the same time, revulsion towards them. Although I was one of them... seeing them pretend to be nonchalant, a wicked thought would suddenly emerge. 'You are sad too, aren't you? You can't truly open your hearts, can you? Even now, damp rain is seeping through the holes. So why do you wear such expressions?' I would think.'
--- p.260

'They say that humans feel the same sensation when something extremely cold or extremely hot touches their skin. So I thought, I must be approaching something extremely sad or extremely joyful. Whether I would suffer frostbite or burns was a matter for later.'
--- p.87

'A life so afraid that even death might be a mistake. I never even knew such a thing existed.'
--- p.340

'A flower blooming in a dried-up well, barely surviving on the sunlight that enters only at noon, still hopes someone will discover it, and that felt exactly like my situation. To ask someone to smell my fragrance is no different from asking them to die for me.'
--- p.361