dd’s umbrella

For too brief a time, d escapes the grasp of isolation upon meeting dd, only to be ensnared by grief when dd dies in a car accident. Meanwhile, the world around them reckons with the 2014 Sewol ferry disaster that left more than 300 dead. As formally inventive as it is evocative, the novel is composed of twin novellas. The first is told from the perspective of d, and the second from the perspective of a writer researching a book they may never write. As Koreans across the country come together to protest the government’s handling of the disaster, and to impeach the right-wing president in office, the novel examines how progressive movements coexist with social exclusion, particularly of women and sexual minorities, invisibilised in service of the ‘greater cause’.