The Unnamed Woman

One of the two central characters in the novel is an unnamed mother in Seoul, South Korea. Han describes her as “a woman neither young nor particularly beautiful. Her eyes have an intelligent look, but the constant spasming of her eyelids makes this hard to perceive. Her back and shoulders are permanently drawn in, as though she is seeking refuge inside her black clothes” (6). The woman was a quiet and bright child who quickly became obsessed with language. She learns that her mother seriously considered ending her pregnancy; because of this knowledge, the woman lives with a sense of contingency and precariousness. Just after her sixteenth birthday, the woman becomes unable to speak. She “moved without language and understood without language” (11). Eventually, a random French word reawakens her ability to speak.

In the novel’s present tense narrative, the unnamed woman has recently gone through a...