The Hole, HyeYoung Pyun
The Hole, HyeYoung Pyun
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The Hole

Author: Hye-Young Pyun, Sora Kim-Russell

Narrator: Tim Campbell

Unabridged: 4 hr 19 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/10/2020

Synopsis

In this tense, gripping novel by a star of Korean literature, Oghi wakes from a coma after causing a devastating car accident that took his wife's life and left him paralyzed and badly disfigured. His caretaker is his mother-in-law, a widow grieving the loss of her only child. Oghi is neglected and left alone in his bed. His world shrinks to the room he lies in and his memories of his troubled relationship with his wife, a sensitive, intelligent woman who found all of her life goals thwarted except for one: cultivating the garden in front of their house. But soon Oghi notices his mother-in-law in the abandoned garden, uprooting what his wife had worked so hard to plant and obsessively digging larger and larger holes. When asked, she answers only that she is finishing what her daughter started. As Oghi desperately searches for a way to escape, he discovers the difficult truth about his wife and the toll their life together took on her. The winner of the Shirley Jackson Award and a bestseller in Korea, The Hole is a superbly crafted and deeply unnerving novel about the horrors of isolation and neglect in all of its banal and brutal forms.

About Hye-Young Pyun

Hye-young Pyun is the author of several short-story collections and novels. The recipient of many of Korea's most prestigious awards, including the Dong-in Literary Award, the Yi-sang Literary Award, and the Hyundae Munhak Award, she made her literary debut when she won Seoul Shinmun's annual New Writer's Contest with her short story "Shaking Off Dew" and has continued to publish short stories in publications such as The New Yorker and Harper's Magazine. She lives in Seoul, Korea.

About Sora Kim-Russell

Sora Kim-Russell is a literary translator based in Seoul. Her translations include Hwang Sok-yong’s Princess Bari, Suah Bae’s Nowhere to Be Found, and Kyung-sook Shin’s I’ll Be Right There. She teaches at Ewha Womans University and the Literary Translation Institute of Korea. Her full list of publications can be found at sorakimrussell.com.

About Tim Campbell

Tim Campbell is an award-winning audiobook narrator who has recorded over 800 titles spanning almost every genre. He has won or been nominated for almost every major award in the industry, including an Audie, a Voice Arts Award, and several Earphones Awards and Independent Audiobook Awards. A graduate of the esteemed Great Books Colloquium of Pepperdine University, he specializes in accents, dialects, and character work and holds three degrees in theater and music.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Gabby

This book really surprised me. This book definitely feels more like literary fiction than horror to me, bu the horror is very subtle and effective. This book plays on a lot of real life fears like loneliness and grief and depression, and it very much reminds me of Misery by Stephen King, the plot is......more

Goodreads review by Jessica

It was not hard to sell me on a dark Korean horror novel/psychological thriller. The comparison to Shirley Jackson was intriguing, of course. But I think it's best not to compare it to Jackson or King but to come into this book without the expectations an American would have of a horror novel writte......more

Goodreads review by emma

It's possible I am simply very stupid. This book did not do it for me, and in fact I actively did not enjoy reading it, but that may be my fault. There may have been the greatest thematic undertone in the world going on behind the scenes and it simply went right over my head due to my own dullness. I......more

Goodreads review by Paul

So that's what I'll do. What my daughter couldn't. What she meant to do. What she wanted to do. I have to do it for her. And I will. 편혜영 (Pyun Hye-Young)'s 홀(a phonetic 한글 rendition of 'hole') was published in Korean in 2016 and translated into English, as Hole, by Sora Kim-Russell. I have previously......more

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