The White Book by Han Kang is a unique, poetic work by a Korean author which takes a look at mourning and mortality. It is a celebration of life and a contemplation of death. It is reminiscent of a journal, as the protagonist recollects her late mother’s life, considering as well as honoring her own. She moves through stories and memories, revisiting past moments recalled during the time of her mother’s death.The stories and memories included, range from romantic, to eerie and all are interwoven together to make a cohesive narrative, tackling and exploring themes of death and mourning from a very personal perspective; allowing readers to truly and intimately understand what it is to lose a loved one. The book begins with a white cloth, given to the protagonist on the day of her mother’s death and throughout, she continues to reflect upon white in various contexts. The White Book is a call to remember, process and celebrate life.The story is told with a deep sense of compassion. The narrator’s experience weaves together with the insights of her late mother and the characters she has encountered over the years. Confronting and surrendering to the grief of loss, and a changing relationship to memory. The White Book is a beautiful meditation on the complexity of grief, and the way it serves to shape, motivate and offer solace for ourselves and for those close to us.
Add missing EndorsementAlina Varlanuta (Creator/The Hole in Your Head) I recently read it and it still flickers on my mind. It is an autobiographical writing reflecting on the narrator’s baby sister who died two hours after her birth. It is fragmented into different perspectives. Each opens a white dimension where mourning, frailty and death are dissolving word by word, in utter silence. I loved the structure as the author makes at the beginning a list of the white things that are connected to the narrative. I read it as a book of and on silence, the silence you feel in front of the big words like death and life. The big, yet fragile words. One of my favorite lines: (related to a particular white pebble) ‘If silence could be condensed into the smallest, most solid object, this is how it would feel’. I know that I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but for me it is very important how the paper feels when touched, how the cover completes the whole story. ‘The White Book’ is a beautiful b