The White Book

By Han Kang

SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE • A “formally daring, emotionally devastating, and deeply political” (The New York Times Book Review) exploration of personal grief through the prism of the color white, from the internationally bestselling author of The Vegetarian

“Stunningly beautiful writing . . . delicate and gorgeous . . . one of the smartest reflections on what it means to remember those we’ve lost.”—NPR
 
While on a writer’s residency, a nameless narrator focuses on the color white to creatively channel her inner pain. Through lyrical, interconnected stories, she grapples with the tragedy that has haunted her family, attempting to make sense of her older sister’s death using the color white. From trying to imagine her mother’s first time producing breast milk to watching the snow fall and meditating on the impermanence of life, she weaves a poignant, heartfelt story of the omnipresence of grief and the ways we perceive the world around us.
 
In captivating, starkly beautiful language, The White Book offers a multilayered exploration of color and its absence, of the tenacity and fragility of the human spirit, and of our attempts to graft new life from the ashes of destruction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Feb 19, 2019
• ISBN: 9780525573081

Reviews for The White Book

[over.the.edge · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The White Book By Han Kang Translated from Korean by Deborah Smithpub date 2-19-19 Hogarth/Crown publishingAn introspective and fascinating collection of poems, written during Han Kang's visit to to Warsaw, seeing the war torn streets, remnants of the Second World War. It rekindles memories of the story of her older sister, who died in her mother's arms 2 hours after birth, and many other memories from her childhood.Han Kang's hauntingly beautiful prose uses her life story as a an artist might fill a canvas-white with purity and goodness-whose shading adds much more perspective and depth than color. This is an unedited version of the book but I do hope all that I read is kept. It's amazing. Favorites were:DoorWhite CityCertain objects in darknesswavewhite dogyulan. Lace Curtain and Incandescent Bulb were my most favorite.Thanks to Hogarth books and Han Kang for this ARC#TheWhiteBook #NetGalley

[garybrady · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I saw The White Book the other day and was immediately attracted. I'd never heard of Han Kang but I like that whole eastern minimalist thing and snow (which features in the book, of course). Now one part of me feels I have been had. When you pay £9 for a book called the white book and you realise that half of it is white because there is no writing on many pages, you have to be suspicious. Along with the poorly executed black and white photographs there is plenty to complain about. On the other hand, I did enjoy the series of prose poems that focus on things white and tell the minimalist story of a girl from Korea whose older sister and brother died when her mother miscarried and who travels to the west. It made me want to read more by her.

[lydia1879 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I love Han Kang’s writing and this was no exception.

Meditations on the colour white, but also of death, of life, of breath, of rebirth were captured in short pieces of flash fiction. Some of which really took my breath away and some of which, unfortunately, I think, due to the nature of the text, were a little more forgettable.

This is perhaps one of her more hopeful works. Kang writes a lot about violence and human violence and incidental violence but this feels more tender, more fleeting, more quiet.

Snow, salt, sea spray, a baby as small as a rice cake.

Fog, cold breath in the morning, snowflakes melting on coat sleeves, all on painfully white pages.

I wish more of it stuck with me, but I love her language still.

[beamis12 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Such a difficult book to describe, difficult to review. A very unconventional narrative, but the writing is just gorgeous. Sad at times, a reflection on the sister that she never knew using the color white. Descriptions of the feelings these things invoke, politics, reminders of the past, present. Meaningful. Things that make one ponder, ask questions.Lace curtain. "Is it because of some billowing whiteness within us, unsullied, inviolate, that our encounters with objects so pristine never fail to leave us moved?"Breath cloud. "On cold mornings,chat first White cloud of escaping breath is proof that we are living. Proof of our bodies warmth."Handkerchief. "A single handkerchief drifted down, slowest of all, finally to the ground. Like a bird with it's wings half furled. Like a soul tentatively sounding out a place it might alight."Each item is followed by a descriptive meaning, all beautiful. One could literally find special quotes everywhere. A book to savour.

[mm_jones · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Fascinating approach to a book, a contemplation that has been compared to a secular prayer. Don't expect a story that follows an known pattern. One imagines how a person's life is affected by things that occurred before they were born. From reading reviews below, prior publications contained photos or images, the 2/19 US publication has none. This edition also names the writing location as Warsaw.

[michael5rimmer · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I mispprehended the nature of this book when I bought it, thinking it a series of prose-poem meditations on white things, which it is, but not realising the interconnectedness of the chapter-verses, linked as they are by the neo-natal death of the author's older sister. I'm not sure I would have bought it knowing it's subject [I've had enough of death and near-death this year], but sometimes a book finds us rather than the other way.

[cariola_6 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It has taken me a while to finish. Rather like a good book of poetry, each piece needs to be savored before one moves on. Written while the author was at a writer's retreat in Warsaw, it has been described as a meditation on white, and that is as good a description as any. Looking at it from this angle, it seems very much like a writing exercise. Each short piece--some only a paragraph, the longest a few pages--observes and reflects on something white: a dog, snow, wings, breast milk, lace curtains, a shroud, paper, etc. Underlying many of these meditations is a sense of loss, of mourning for the older sister who died only a few hours after her premature birth.It was useful to look up the symbolism of the color white in Korean culture: "White is the most commonly used color in Korea. Koreans were sometimes referred to as the white clad people. Historically, commoners wore white hanboks, a traditional Korean form of attire. Only royalty and the upper class were permitted to wear colorful hanboks. White is still worn for weddings, new years celebrations and funerals to celebrate the journey to the afterlife, the color white symbolizes purity, innocence, peace and patriotism. Traditionally, white represents the element metal and the direction West." (I expected that, as in Japanese culture, white was the color of death; it is not.) There are some obvious connections to the meditations as Han Kang reflects on the innocent life lost, on mourning, and on healing.If you are familiar this author's other books, The Vegetarian and Human Acts, expect the same beautiful writing, minus the violence, in condensed form. Don't expect a strong linear plot or a political message, and give each piece time to do its work. Accept the book for what it is, a meditation and an opening of the heart and mind.

[kakadoo202 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Audio. Very calm. But i was not in the right mindset to really appreciate it

[greeniezona · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Once I started reading this I could not put it down. Really, I was crying in the school pick-up line waiting on my son, and quickly rearranged my dinner plans so that I could go home and sit down and read the rest. The subject resonated with me, as both my husband and my youngest son were babies the would not have been born had not older siblings died at birth or miscarried. Haunting and poetic.

[varielle_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

White is the color of death and the thread of a dying child winds all through this contemplation? study? meditation? on the color white and the associations related to white things. Is stream of consciousness still a thing? I understand The White Book is considered flash fiction. From the white of a rice cake, to a babies face, to the color of the blossoms of a shrub planted to honor the dead, the emotional meaning of those things and events is pondered. This is best read in small snippets because it's a lot to take in and ruminate upon. Wonderfully thoughtful.