The following version of this book was used to create this guide: Han, Kang. Greek Lessons. Translated by Deborah Smith and Emily Yae Won, Hogarth, 2023.

Han Kang’s novel Greek Lessons is written from both the first and third-person perspectives. Han primarily uses the present tense, although she narrates flashbacks in the past tense.

The novel centers on an unnamed Korean woman who is suddenly unable to speak. A published poet, she worked as a university instructor before leaving the position in the wake of her muteness. She recently lost her mother, went through a divorce, and lost custody of her young son. As a teenager, the woman went through another period of sudden muteness. A random French word reawakened language in the woman; hoping to replicate this solution, she begins taking Greek lessons at a private academy. In the absence of her son and of her ability to speak, the woman becomes lonely and deeply heartsick.

The woman takes Greek lessons from an unnamed lecturer, who always wears thick glasses. In Chapter 3, the man considers Jorge Luis Borges, Buddhism, and a memory of lanterns at a temple. His Greek lessons often verge on philosophy. Han soon reveals that the man, like his father, is gradually losing his sight. He writes a melancholy, heartbroken letter to a former lover—a deaf woman he met while living in Germany as a youth. After the man hides his encroaching blindness from her, the woman ended their relationship. The man eventually moved back to South Korea, where he often goes walks during the day when his vision is strongest.

The unnamed mute woman considers her mother, who almost ended her pregnancy. As a child, the woman was obsessed with language. In the present, a therapist suggests that the woman’s muteness is a product of her recent traumas: her mother’s death, her divorce, and the legal loss of her son. During a rare visit, her son tells her that his father plans to move away with him. Despite her agony, the woman continues to be unable to speak. During one of her lessons, the woman writes poetry in Greek. After other students notice, the teacher asks to see the work. The woman quickly leaves the classroom; the teacher follows her and apologizes. Thinking that she might be deaf, he uses sign language.

In Chapter 9, the man drafts several letters to his sister in Germany. He recalls their conflicts as children and mentions the mute woman in his class.

At night, the unnamed woman often walks until the point of exhaustion, hoping to rid herself of her insomnia and nightmares. Prior to one of the Greek lessons, her teacher approaches her and seems to consider speaking with her again.

In Chapter 14, the Greek teacher writes a letter to a childhood friend, Joachim Gründel, who has recently died. He recalls their intimate, intellectual conversations, and notes that Joachim was romantically interested in him. He remembers their arguments about the nature of form and beauty.

In Chapter 17, a bird flies into the academy building. The unnamed woman attempts to shoo guide the bird outside, but it flies into the basement. When the Greek teacher joins her, the woman continues on to the classroom. As the Greek teacher attempts to see the bird, he accidentally falls and breaks his glasses. Desperate, he calls for help. Eventually, the woman finds him and guides him into a taxi and, eventually, to a hospital. She traces words and responses on his palm. Eventually, she accompanies him to his home.

Chapter 19 details a long quasi-conversation between the unnamed woman and the Greek teacher. The man, acting almost as if her were alone, recalls his childhood and describes his encroaching blindness. The woman’s thoughts frequently interrupt his speech, and, eventually, their words seem to combine and coalesce. The next morning, the man awakens to find the woman gone. She returns and brings him to an optician’s office. They soon kiss.

The final two chapters constitute a poetic, opaque section that uses contradictions and paradoxes to describe the intimacy between the unnamed man and woman.