It’s a story that’s been repeated around the world over the last century or two, and the usual universals are there – the economic challenges and all those big and little conflicts that attend social change – but each situation has its particularity. We learn of the mother’s determination that her children be educated, the lengths she went to to obtain the money to pay for this education, and her disappointment when one daughter trained to be a pharmacist but then married and had three children in pretty quick succession. Through flashback reflections of the various characters we learn about this time of transition, and the challenges both generations faced in coping with the change. The novel is contemporary but spans a few decades, decades in which many of the current parental generation were still living fairly traditional rural lives while their children were being educated and moving to the city to chase “bigger” dreams. I haven’t been there, and I don’t think I’ve read any Korean literature before, so I was predisposed to be interested before I started it. So, what did I find fascinating? Firstly, of course, is the fact that it is set in South Korea.

The rest of the book chronicles the family’s search for the mother and, as they search, their reflections on her life and their relationship with her. We learn pretty quickly that the mother and father had been in Seoul to visit some of their children and had become separated when trying to board the subway together, with the mother being left behind. The book commences with the line “It’s been one week since Mom went missing”. But, before I explain that, a quick overview of the plot. So, here I am again, reading about a mother!Īnd I liked it – for a number of reasons. Kyung-Sook Shin’s Please look after mom (or, mother in the British edition) has now been shortlisted for the prize. Am I right in thinking that mothers are more often the subject of novels and memoirs than fathers? Or, is it just that I’m a woman and am subconsciously (or even consciously, if I’m honest) drawn to the topic? Of course, with the Shadow Man Asian Literary Prize reviewing project I didn’t really have a choice.

Please look after mom ending